Dani Phantom
by Tib Dunncan
Summary: With a new girl in Amity Park, things are going to change drastically for Danny for one simple reson - She knows. She knows because she's not from Amity Park. She's from another universe all together. Rated 'T' for Character Death. Danny's P.O.V.
1. Chapter 1

Dani Phantom

I actually remember how I met her

Who am I? I'm Danny Fenton. 'Her' is – was – one of my best friends, Dani Platto.

She had just moved to Amity Park form New York. Really, it was a lot more than that, but I'll get to that later.

This is her story, told by me. When I'm done, you'll know how she changed Amity Park, and why I'm the one telling the story.

When I opened the door, I saw her staring, dumbfounded, at the bright neon sign, which was attached to our two story house that read 'Fenton Works'. Immediately, I labeled her as another one of those kids who, after living next door to us for a while, would think that our family is a bunch of ghost hunting freaks. Why not? Almost ever other kid in Amity Park does. Even my own sister does.

But, wow, was I wrong.

After introducing them to my family, I pulled her off to the side and explained that my parents were ghost hunters.

I expected her to burst out in laughter. But, instead, she said, "Seriously? That's amazing!"

I was caught off guard and was ready to defend.

"It's a totally reasonable job, and - Really? You think so?" I asked.

"Of course! You Know, I did some research on ghosts around this area a couple of months back. Especially Danny Phantom. Maybe you've seen him around?" she asked.

I could practically feel the blood drain from my face.

"Uhm… yeah, I've seen him."

She smiled, broad and knowingly.

"How much do you actually know?" I asked.

"A lot more than most other people here. You know what I mean?"

Admittedly, that made me kind of nervous. I mean, for all these months I've managed to keep my secret a secret, and then here comes this girl who says she knows so much about Danny Phantom, but doesn't say what.

So, I decided that Danny Phantom would pay her a visit that night.

Before their family left, I learned her name. Dani.

When Danny Phantom floated into her room at eleven o' clock at night, she was writing. When she noticed me, she slammed the book shut and shoved it under her pillow. But, other than that, she seemed completely calm with my being there.

"Can I help you, Danny?" she whispered.

"Yeah. A friend of mine told me that you know a lot about me, and I was just wondering how much."

"Everything, Fenton, everything. About the accident in your parents' lab, all of your enemies, everything." she said, jumping off of her bed. She walked over to a cabinet and pulled out a pink and black folder, in color coordination with the rest of her room.

Out of the folder, she pulled numerous drawings and scattered them on the floor.

Every single drawing was something out of my life. There was Vlad, Skulker, Dan, my friends and family and so many others.

"Look," she said, "I'm sorry if I'm coming on too strong, but… oh, my gosh… how…" she stuttered.

"You ok?"

"Yeah. It's just… I've planed for this for the longest time and now that I'm actually talking to you… I just don't know how to tell you… that…"

"What?"

"It doesn't matter. But I'm behind Danny Phantom one hundred percent. I know about all of the bad things that were said about you. All of the blackmails that were set up by your enemies." she said.

"Real confidence booster."

"Sorry." she said. "But you really don't have to worry about your secret. I promise you that it's safe with me." she said, smiling.

"Yeah, but how did you find out? The only people who know about this are my two best friends, my sister, and Plasmius. You didn't happen to see me transform, did you?"

She had started to answer me, but instead, she just handed me four video-cassette tapes, each labeled 'Danny Phantom'. There was season one, season two, season three, and movies.

"What is this?" I asked.

"Just watch them whenever you can, but don't let your parents see. Also, meet me behind the Nasty Burger after school, tomorrow. I need to show you something." she spoke rapidly, and quietly, making the words difficult to hear. But I still understood her.

"Uhm… ok…"

"I know this is probably kinda' weird to you…" she started.

"I've dealt with weirder, but… yeah, kind of." I said.

"…but I promise you that I'm not working with anybody. I know that you've had a somewhat recent problem with Vlad when he sent Danielle here to Amity Park?" This girl was too much.

"Yeah." by now, I had given up on figuring out how she knew about all of this stuff.

I glanced down at my watch. I really needed to be getting back home at that time.

As I turned back towards the window, she said, "Before you go, I wanted to let you know that I really appreciate all that you've done for Amity Park."

I smiled. Hey, it wasn't often that Danny Phantom was recognized for anything other than blasting buildings and being the town's public ghost enemy number one. So, yeah, it was nice to have someone – other than Sam, Tucker, and Jazz, of course – who knows that I'm not the kind of ghost that the press has cracked me up to be.

"Thanks." I said. She smiled back at me.

After that, I left.

The next day, I went to school, as usual. But now that I knew that if she felt like it, she could tell my secret to the entire school, staff and all, I noticed that she was in four of my classes.

During math, my ghost sense went off. A split second after, Dani and I both raised our hand.

"May I be excused?" we asked in unison.

Mr. Palooka excused both of us.

Dani ran into the ladies' restroom, and I ran into the men's room. After making sure that there was no one in the room, I transformed into Danny Phantom.

As I phased through the ceiling, my ghost sense went off again. It was directing me to go west. So, that's the way that I went. When I stopped, there was no ghost.

Then, my ghost sense went off again, but this time it was going in the opposite direction.

"Ok, so we go east…" I muttered to myself, as I took off.

This time, when I stopped, there was one ghost who appeared to be around my age, fourteen.

"Uhm… excuse me, miss?" I asked.

As she turned around, I noticed the symbol in the upper center of her shirt. It was the same one that I had. Obliviously to the public, it meant 'Danny Phantom'.

"Danny!" she said, smiling.

"Yeah. Danny." I said sighing, "Look, I've got to get back to school, so can we just skip the banter and get to the part where I beat you?"

When her smile faded, it was hard to tell if she was angry or confused.

"I don't want to fight you, Danny." she said, finally.

"That's odd. Most ghosts can't wait for me to kick their butts!" I quipped.

"No, I mean… I was hoping that we could meet under less…_ pressured_… circumstances. I understand that me just floating here after your ghost sense went off seems kind of odd, but I am here for the same reason that you are – ghost fighting. I am also here by the same circumstances as you. I am only half ghost."

I studied her face for a minute.

"Dani?!?"

"Hi…"

"So… this is what you wanted to show me?" I asked.

"Yes," she said, "It is."

At least I was getting some answers, now.

Dani's watch beeped.

"Look, how about we head to my house after school and I'll give you all the answers that you need…"

"Ok."

Up to sixth period, I had been thinking of about a million questions that I thought would help me understand everything about what was going on.

Eventually, I narrowed it down to three.

When Sam and Tucker walked into the room, I smiled.

"Hey, Danny." Sam said.

"Hey, guys." I replied.

There were a few minutes until class started, so I decided to tell them everything I knew about Dani so far.

I pulled the four videotapes out of my backpack and handed them to my friends.

"What are these?" they asked as they read the labels.

"Apparently, Danny Phantom has his own television show!" I told them.

"Since when?"

"I think she said that it aired on May third, two thousand four." I said.

"That's a month after you got your powers." Tucker pointed out.

"Yeah, and these tapes tell you about everything. Plasmius, Dan, the whole nine yards." I said, gesturing to the cassettes.

"How did she get these?" asked Sam.

"I don't know. And to top it all off, she has ghost powers, too! She told me stop by her house after school so she could explain everything."

"Danny," Sam started, "you need to be careful if you _do_ go over to meet her. She could have a deal with Vlad. Remember what happened with Danielle?"

"Yeah, she knows about that, too." I sighed.

Sam and Tuck exchanged glances.

"We'll come with you." they chorused.

So, when school let out, Sam, Tucker, and I headed over to my place to drop off our stuff, and to grab the Spector Deflector and the Fenton thermos. Then, we went next door to Dani's.

After Sam locked the Spector Deflector around her waist, and Tucker turned on the Fenton Thermos, I knocked on the door.

A few seconds later, Dani opened it.

"Hey, guys come on in." she chirped.

We all followed her in and sat down opposite of her in the living room.

"So, I take it that you two know about my whole … ghost… thing, right?"

"Yeah, we do." Sam said.

"Ok, and I'm sure that Danny showed you the tapes." she paused. "Wait. Where are the tapes?" she asked.

"Uh, they're back at my house. We all stopped by and dropped our stuff off."

"No! No, you've got to keep those out of sight. Goodness, tell me that you didn't just… toss them onto the sofa!" she exclaimed.

"Well… I… ugh, yeah, I did." I confessed.

"Danny, did you happen to watch any of those tapes?"

"Yes. I did."

"Do you know what kind of footage is on those? Not only does it have _everyone's_ profile downloaded onto those tapes, but it shows both you and Vlad transforming. Do you know how Vlad would react if he found out that your parents knew who he was?"

"Dani! Hush, please! Your parents are home! I really don't need _them _knowing my secret, too." I said.

She stared, blankly, at me for a moment.

"Danny, they moved here with me. They already know your secret. And – again – you don't have to worry. We've already established that keeping this secret is very important to you, so they will not tell anyone. I promise."

"Ok. Good to know."

"Now, before someone _does_ find those tapes…PLEASE…go get them and put them someplace safe."

"Dani," I said, "I can assure you that the tapes won't be found by my parents, because my parents are out of town for the week. They've gone to some ghost seminar." I answered proudly.

"Uh. So, you're telling me that your parents left you and your sister alone for a week without anyone else in the house?"

"Yeah." I replied

Then, her doorbell rang.

Dani got up and opened the door.

Even thought there was a fairly thick wall in between the living room and the foyer, I could still hear everything she was saying.

"No. Go away." There was a pause while I tried to hear the person outside. "No! I said go away! I don't want you in my house!" she shouted. I heard the swoosh of the door and the thump as the person tried to stop it from closing.

"No! Go…away!" she shouted, angrily. After that, I heard a grunt, and then ceramic breaking.

Sam, Tucker, and I got up and rushed over to the foyer. Dani was getting up after being knocked into the ceramic vase.

And, standing in the doorway, holding my backpack, was Vlad.

"Hello, Daniel." he said casually, as if he hadn't just shoved Dani backwards into a hard wooden table.

"What are you doing here, Vlad?" I asked, transforming.

"Daniel, I'm surprised you'd do that in front of this girl." he said gesturing to Dani, who was now back on her feet.

"Why are you here?" I asked.

"Your parents asked me to stay with you and your sister for the week. And, of course, I couldn't say no to your parents." he said.

"And by 'my parents,' you mean my mom?" I retorted.

"Glad you're finally catching on." he smirked.

Vlad opened my backpack and pulled out the four tapes.

"And I would have come over sooner if I hadn't found these. I must admit, I found them quite interesting. Although, I can't possibly believe that they belong to you. Perhaps they belong to one of your… friends?" he asked, looking at Dani.

"How did you find me?" she asked, angrily.

"Simple, Danielle. I've happened to become mayor of Amity Park. I know every thing that happens here. Including properties for lease and sale, and the people who buy them. So, when I heard that Jake and Abigail Platto had just bought the house next door, it didn't take long for me to track you down at school." he said.

"Ok, reasonable answer. But what do you want from me?" she asked.

"Honestly, I thought that you'd know. The tapes. Do you have any idea what I could accomplish with these tapes?" he asked, looking straight at me.

I lunged towards him, trying to grab the tapes. Right before I reached him, he dropped my pack and turned into a swirl of ectoplasmic smoke and disappeared.


	2. Chapter 2

"No…" I said.

Suddenly, I felt a wave of anger. Immediately, I realized that it was towards Dani.

"You lied!" I yelled at her. "You told me that –"

"I told you that I wasn't working with Vlad, and I'm not! I'm really not."

"Then how did he know that you had those tapes?"

"My… my… my step-mom went to collage with him, and, three years ago, he stopped by for a visit. I didn't recognize him until I got here. I gave the tapes to you thinking that you'd try to keep them away from everyone."

"Do you know what he's going to do with those?!?" I shouted.

She looked like she was about to cry, but she didn't.

I transformed and flew out of her house.

I had been flying around for a few hours. It was already eight o' clock at night. I had started to feel bad for yelling at Dani, but I was still angry. When I thought of her, I remembered that I had left my backpack at her house.

I changed my course.

When I got to her house, I found my pack on the couch.

I grabbed it and slipped my arm through one of the straps.

I noticed that her parents were in the kitchen, quietly talking.

Her mother noticed me and pointed me out to her husband.

"Hey, Danny! Have a minute?" he asked.

"Uhm, sure…" I said, walking into their kitchen.

"Danielle said that she's really sorry about what happened before. And when she saw that you left your book bag here, she told us to let you know that."

I looked around for any sign of her.

"Uh… where is she?" I asked.

Her parents looked worriedly at each other.

"Danny, she went to Wisconsin." her mother said. "She said that she wasn't going to let him show the tapes."

"She went after Vlad?" At that time, I couldn't believe that she would do something like that. But then again, I didn't really know her back then.

I pulled the Fenton Thermos out and dropped my pack without thinking. Strapping the Thermos around myself, I said, "Mr. and Mrs. Platto, please, if Sam, Tucker or Jazz stop by and ask you where I am… lie. Please!" I begged.

Abigail smiled

"Danny, I know that you're going to try to find her. She told us a million times about Vlad. She knows all of his powers, about the second mansion in the Rockies, all of his ecto-gear, she's fine." Jake said.

"Not my point, but thanks for the pep talk." I turned around and started to fly away.

"Danny, you're not going to fly all the way to Wisconsin, are you?" she asked.

"No, I can go through my parents' ghost portal. It'll be quicker that way." I said.

"Oh, then, in that case, why don't you use ours?" Abigail said.

"What?" I heard myself ask.

"Yeah, Abigail is an ectologist." Jake said proudly.

I stared at them for a minute.

And I thought my family was full of surprises, I started thinking to myself.

So, I headed down to their ghost lab.

It took me a few minutes to figure out how to open it. Eventually, I was able to open it and fly right through the portal.

I partly expected to see the Fenton Portal a couple of yards away, but it was no where in sight. Instead, her Portal let out by Walker's Jail. The Plasmius Portal was in sight, about two city blocks away.

Steering clear of the jail, I headed to Vlad's ghost lab. When I entered it, I gratefully found that it was empty. I was about to call out for Dani, but decided against it. Because if he wasn't in his lab, he was obviously somewhere in his mansion… within earshot. I mean, he couldn't _possibly_ be out with his wife.

Just then, a bright flash of pink light streaked through the room. As it flew past me, I felt something grab my wrist. It jerked me backwards.

"Hey!" I shouted as it dragged me back into the ghost zone.

When I struggled, trying to break out of its grip, it got tighter.

"Sorry." a female voice echoed from the light.

I saw the Plasmius Portal close as I was pulled away from it.

I looked behind me and saw that we were headed towards the Fenton Portal.

"Hey! Let go!" I screamed. She zipped right through our Portal.

When we stopped, the light started to fade.

"Who the heck do you think you are?" I asked angrily, my hands and eyes glowing vibrant neon green.

"Calm down, Danny. It's me…"

As the light faded completely, I realized who it was who dragged me out of Vlad's lab, through the ghost zone, and into our lab. It was Dani.

"Are you nuts?!? I talked to your parents. They told me that you knew about Vlad and all of his powers. He could have hurt you! You shouldn't have taken the chance." I said.

Dani smiled one of her soon to be famous please-don't-start-this-junk-with-me smiles.

"I didn't take the chance. I took the opportunity." she said, pulling the four tapes out of her backpack. She handed them to me.

"You got them?!?" I asked surprised.

"Danny," she said as her confident smile faded, "I'm so sorry. I know I should have gotten rid of the tapes before we came here. But when my parents told me that we were moving to Amity Park, I didn't think that they were serious. And I didn't want to get rid of my only Danny Phantom tapes. Plus, I thought it would be the best way to tell you that I know you, and that I'm not here to cause any trouble."

I looked at her and saw that there was more to her story than she said there was. Then I remembered that I had left before she answered any of my questions.

"Dani, I need to know how you know all of this. And how you have these tapes." I said.

"Ok. So, when my dad got transferred to Amity Park, we had to pass through a portal that let out here, which is the first part on how I got my powers. Then, the second portal that I went through- there and back – was the second part on how I got my powers, that night I realized that I actually had the ghost powers at that time." she said.

That's when I realized what she said.

"So, you went through a portal to here. Where did the first one start?"

"New York. Except, kinda' in a different dimension. The way I see it, our world is a spec in the universe. Our universe is nothing compared to the multi-verse."

"Multi-verse?" I asked.

"Everything you think is emit into the universe. So, there is an alternate world for every book, every TV show, etcetera."

"Ok."

"And – again – I'm really sorry about my not getting rid of the tapes."

"Yeah, well, let's not think about that right now. You got the tapes back, and there's nothing to worry about." But even as I said it, I wasn't so sure about it.

"I find it odd that Vlad would be so careless with something that he was so sure would get him what he wants" she said.

I stared down at the tapes. Was it possible?

I put one of the tapes in and hit 'play'.

The video screen showed Danny Phantom fighting Skulker. Almost immediately, I recognized it as my first encounter with the Ghost king.

Dani studied the footage.

"It doesn't seem like anything was altered, cut, or copied…"

But something that Dani had told me raised a red flag.

"Which tape has my profile on it?" I asked.

"The first one." she answered.

I took out the tape that was currently in the VCR and inserted the tape marked 'season one'.

It was already rewound all the way, so it automatically showed me the profiles.

As it started, Jazz walked into the living room.

"Danny? Where have you –" she began to ask, eventually reverting her attention to the TV screen, "What is this?"

As my information appeared, the tape started to violently flicker.

I remembered that Tucker had told me that when a tape is copied, there is usually some side effect to the original tape.

"It's what's going to ruin everything!"

"And… who's this?" Jazz asked picking up the remaining tapes.

"This is Dani Platto. She moved in next to us a couple of days ago." I said.

"So… these tapes are yours?" Jazz asked, reading the labels.

"Yes. They are." she answered miserably as she sat down and buried her face in her hands.

As she looked up, she sighed.

"Vlad has footage of Danny going ghost, and we're sure that he's going to use it to tell his secret.

"Well, really, Danny, what's the worst that could happen?" she asked, trying not to upset me.

Inevitably, I had started thinking of all the thing that could happen. For some reason, whenever situations like these come up, I somehow start thinking about things like that.

If Vlad was to turn Amity Park against Danny Phantom, say that he knows who the ghost boy is, and then uses that footage to prove that it's me, who knows what would happen.

Maybe Vlad wouldn't tell Amity Park my secret…


	3. Chapter 3

The next day, Vlad issued a town meeting. _Everyone_ was to attend. And for the people who weren't able to, he had every news station in the Amity Park area broadcast it for the whole day.

Mom and Dad's seminar just happen to be cut short.

Apparently, the Wisconsin ghost trashed the place. They arrived three hours before the meeting.

"I'm going over to Dani's." I said.

"Your father, sister and I are going to the town meeting.

Aren't you going to come? It's mandatory."

"Na, I think we'll just catch it at hers." I tried to sound as casual as possible as I headed next door.

As it turned out, Dani's parents had decided to go, just to 'get out of the house'.

"Hey, Danny. I take your parents went to town hall?" Dani asked, placing the tapes in her safe and locking it. After a second, it started to glow a vibrant green. It was a ghost shield.

"Yeah." I answered, staring at the safe.

"I heard what happened up in Wisconsin. Not so surprised that he would go that low. But, if he does say anything, we'll just take it from there." she said.

I wanted to say something, but didn't know how.

"Dani… I think we should… go down to the meeting…" I couldn't believe what I was saying. And now that I look back on it, that wasn't the smartest idea I had ever had.

Dani nodded and transformed. I did the same. We flew to the town hall, landed backstage, and morphed back into our human forms.

We both heard Vlad say, "Amity Park's notorious ghost boy,

Danny Phantom, has caused us much trouble…" I could practically

feel my face grow red. I was angry. Very, very angry. "It has recently

been found that Danny Phantom is only half ghost."

I turned towards the stage.

"Danny, please don't –" Dani started before I burst onto the stage.

"_What _is your problem?" I shouted.

Dani rushed out and grabbed my arm, trying to pull me back. I shook her off.

"Daniel Fenton is the ghost boy!" Vlad declared.

I took a swing at him. One of his guards grabbed my arm and

flung me backwards. Another guard tossed a spectral energy

neutralizer at me and it trapped me.

"Danny!" she shouted. Dani turned her attention to Vlad. "You're horrible! What has Danny ever done to you? All he's ever done is protect his friends, family and Amity Park!"

"Danny Phantom has destroyed numerous building, and has

stolen nearly a million dollars in money and items. You do the math."

"It's not Danny's fault! He was being possessed by a man named Freakshow. His crystal scepter could hypnotize and control ghosts! And all that stuff was returned!"

"I don't care whose fault it was! Either way, Daniel Fenton should not be allowed to live in Amity Park!"

"Why not?" Dani screamed at him.

In the audience, I could see Sam's family, my family, Tucker's family, and Dani's parents (who were, by now, trying to make their way up to the stage to stop their daughter.).

"Danny has corrupted my daughter!" Mrs. Manson shouted, "My Sammy-kins used to be so happy! And since she's hanging out with him, she's turned… _emo_!"

"I'm not emo, I'm goth!" Sam shouted.

"Danny and Sam have been friend since long before he got his ghost powers. And… who are you people to say who Danny is, and what he's trying to accomplish? How many of you have actually taken the time to understand what Danny's trying to do?" Dani shouted, angrily.

"We don't have to!" Vlad said, as two of his guards grabbed her. "We just have to send him to a research facility in Nevada!"

"Have you ever heard the old saying 'when you open the cage door, your bird will fly as far away from you as possible, and then find a nest'?" Dani asked, slowly slipping her shoe off.

"No… I … haven't…" Vlad answered confusedly.

Dani kicked as hard as she could, and her shoe flew off, striking the release button on the spectral energy neutralizer. I was freed, so I transformed and flew out of the meeting hall before any of the guards could do a thing.

"Learn it!"

I flew past my and Dani's house. About three blocks down, I turned around and flew into her bedroom.

To my surprise, I saw her sitting at her desk.

"Dani, how'd you get here?"

"I flew. When the guards tried to stop you, I went backstage,

transformed, and flew here." she explained.

"Oh." I said as I got a Fenton Thermos out. "Here, I want you to hold onto this."

"Thanks, but you really need to go. Once the G.I.W. searches your house, they'll come here. If they find you, well…"

"What about you?" I asked. "I'll just say that I was working on an ectoplasmic experiment

with my mom. Totally liable. Give me your phone." she said.

So, I handed her my cell phone.

She set it on 'vibrate' and programmed her name and number into it.

"If you see my info, then that means that the Guys in white left, you can come back here, and we can work this thing out."

"Ok." I replied.

"One question: where are you going to go?" she asked.

"I'll head down to the school… hide out there."

As Dani finished programming my phone, we heard, "Daniel Fenton, by order of the mayor of Amity Park, and with the authority of the Guys In White ghost-control organization, you are hereby under arrest."

I could swear that my heart skipped a beat.

Dani parted he curtains slightly and peered out her window.

"They're all out in front. C'mon, we'll get you out the back." We raced downstairs and headed to her kitchen.

We stepped forward and one of the agents outside shouted, "There! There they are! Get in there, now!"

I saw about ten of the forty men run around to the back as Danielle started to open the door.

"No!" I jumped in front of her, slammed the door shut, and locked it.

"What are you doing?" she asked as I grabbed her wrist and lead her upstairs.

I was headed back towards her room, but she stopped and pulled me into the laundry room.

I locked the door and turned off the light. In the near dead silence, all I could hear was my heart pounding in my ears. Dani was so quiet, so calm.

Then, we heard a crash from downstairs.

"Daniel Fenton, you have the right to cooperate with the Guys in white and come peacefully." someone shouted

"Help me move the washer-dryer." she whispered.

"Why?" I asked as I pushed.

"Your house has the Fenton anti-creep system. Well, our house has something similar." she grunted.

"Behind this thing? the activation system for ours is hidden behind a curtain."

"I told my parents that we needed a more easily accessible activation area. But they thought it would be too obvious to the Guys in White. Especially after the Reality Gauntlet incident." she explained

"I made them forget about that." I said.

Now Dani was typing in things that I couldn't quite make out, because there wasn't any screen, and her hands were moving almost as rapidly as she talked the night that I met her.

Just as Dani was about to enter the information, the G.I.W. broke the laundry room door down. she quickly pressed the enter button, and a transparent wall formed between us and the agents.

She pressed it again and a hole opened in the floor.

"Go! Jump!" she shouted.


	4. Chapter 4

After we jumped, the hole closed up, leaving the passageway we were falling down pitch black.

We hit the ground and rolled a few yards. When we stopped, we looked up at each other. We had landed barely a foot apart.

Despite the circumstances, we both burst into laughter.

"Congrats, you two! you just managed to fall into another problem!" someone sneered from behind us.

"Plasmius," Dani said angrily, "how'd you know about our lab?"

She and I got to our feet.

"Easy. I figured that If your parents were anything like Maddie and the orange goof, then you were sure to have a ghost lab, which is where you would take Daniel if either one of you ever had to hide."

"Oh, shut up. He's not the one who named his cat after the woman he lost twenty years ago." Dani said, bitterly. It was pretty irrelevant, so I figured that she just had to bring it up.

"It… is… my sister's… cat."

"Yeah, sure. Whatever, Fruitloop." she said.

I tried to suppress a laugh, but failed miserably.

"Daniel, I am only going to say this once. I will call off my men and tell Amity Park that Danny Phantom is a good little ghost… under one condition. You have to renounce your idiot father." he said.

"My answer was 'no' a year and a half ago, and it still isn't gonna happen."

He turned his attention towards Dani.

"I know that you care about him, Danielle, and if you know what is good for him and yourself, you will carry this out if he refuses."

"You're right about the first part, but what in the name off all that is good makes you think that is ever going to happen?" Dani sneered.

Vlad floated over to a control panel. He pushed a button and the hatch that we came down opened. A rope swung down and about twenty of the G.I.W. agents came into the underground lab.

"Them." Vlad answered. He nodded. Every agent in the room pointed some sort of ecto-weapon towards me.

Dani stared at them, hard and emotionless. You'd have thought she had trained for this very situation, the way she was so calm. the only sign of emotion that she showed was the way her hands slightly trembled.

"So, let me get this straight. If I don't agree to waste my dad, then you'll have your Guys in White agents waste me?" I asked.

"So right." Vlad said.

"Dude, seriously, get a life."

I stole a look at Dani. She was no longer looking at the white clad men, but staring at the floor.

"You've got one minute."

I saw a spark in her eyes as her head snapped up and she looked at me.

The look that she had. It was the same exact look that she had on that first night, minus the smile.

"Don't do it, Danny, please." she said, almost a whisper.

I knew she had a plan, but something in the look in her eyes was contradicting with her words.

"Dani, I really hope you know that I'm not a bad person, but I have to go with Vlad." I said, returning her look.

"I'm glad you made the right choice, Daniel." he said, grabbing my shoulder. "And to show you that I'm not a completely evil man, I'll let you two have some time alone to discuss your current predicament."

And with that and a smirk, Vlad signaled for his men to leave, and then did the same himself.

I looked at Dani. She smiled at me. Nothing special. Just a warm hello-random-person smile. Those were her best.

"So, how long have you been training?" I asked her, sarcastically.

"Just as long as you have." pause. "Danny, I want you to be careful over in Wisconsin. Don't do anything crazy. Just do what he says. I'll take care of things back here." she said.

"Thank you. Really, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have yelled at you before. Either time. And… I really appreciate what you said back at the meeting."

"Well, I was telling the truth. The one thing that people don't see right away is that you didn't get your powers until you were fourteen. Amity Park has known YOU long before that. And when you get back, they're going to know that. I promise." Dani said.

"Ok." I said, smiling.

"Oh, and, please, don't put on any plays. I've seen the act that you and Jazz put on last time. Wasn't pretty." she said jokingly.

I couldn't help but laugh.

Then, Vlad floated in.

"Come, Daniel. We have four days to practice and plan this out." Vlad said haughtily.

Four Days?

"May ninth. Isn't that your parents' anniversary?" Dani asked with a trace of uneasiness.

"Yeah. It is."

"Go on, Daniel, I want to have a word with Dani."

So, I floated halfway up the passageway from which we came, trying to eavesdrop on them.

"When I came in, I noticed that Daniel was laughing and you were smiling. It was almost as if you weren't even angry."

"When you know Danny like I do, it's hard to be mad at him."

"He has just agreed to kill his own father."

"I… I know… but, sometimes, in life, there are lose-lose situations. And you put Danny into one of those. While I understand where he's coming from, I also know that it wasn't the best possible choice." she said.

"Very well, my little badger. Your parents have taught you wonderfully."

In the dimly lit passageway, I smiled and flew the rest of the way up. I was greeted by twenty to thirty harsh glares from G.I.W. agents.

"I'm just…gonna… go…" I stuttered before I flew out of the laundry room. The rest of the agents were in the living room.

Then, Dani's parents walked in.

Jake looked around the room, and then looked at me.

"Danny? What's going on? Where's Danielle?" he asked.

What was I supposed to tell them? That their fourteen-year-old daughter was in the basement, alone, with Vlad Plasmius? I don't think so.

"She's in the basement with… a friend of ours." I said.

Vlad floated up and Danielle came downstairs.

"I'm going back outside…" her mother said, dazed.

"Danielle, I want an explanation, now!" her father barked.

"Daddy, I thought that we discussed this. The possibilities and

procedures?"

"Yes, but that was before I knew that our house would be an occupation site!" he said. "Who is in charge, here?"

"That would be me." answered Vlad.

"_Who _would be _you_?"

"Vlad Plasmius. I own The Guys in White ghost hunting agency."

"Vlad? Where have you been? I haven't seen you since college!" said Abby, stopping at the door when she heard his name.

Dani rolled her eyes. "Oh, he's been getting around. Big business." she said.

"Yes, well It was really nice to see you again, but Daniel and I must be going."

And with that, Vlad grabbed my arm and dragged me out of the house. We flew to Wisconsin through the night.

While I was up in Wisconsin training with Vlad, Dani was working double time in Amity Park.

She was not only fighting ghosts, but also had been keeping things in check at Fenton Works, making sure that my parents knew what Vlad was planning out.

She was planning a fake-out ambush on me. It did, however, potentially involve a few hours crammed in the Fenton Thermos. But, trust me, that was the least of anyone's troubles.

"Danny, I've briefed your parents on the possible plays that Vlad will use instead of what he told you." she said over the Fenton Phones.

"Good. Now, there's only one thing that I'm worried about. What if Vlad knows?"

"Vlad won't find out. He doesn't even know about the Fenton Phones."

"I… just don't feel safe talking about this. I mean… he's obviously going to suspect something's up. Especially since that last episode with Jazz and me. If he really wants this to happen, then he's not going to let anything past him. He's just that kind of person."

"Well, even if he does find out, I promise you that all will end well. I know Vlad. I know what he's like. Trust me?"

"Ok, Dani. I trust you."

"Thank you."

"Good night."

"G'night." She said.

I turned the Fenton Phones off, took them out, put them on the bedside table and laid down. I quickly fell asleep.

My alarm clock woke me up at Four-Thirty a.m. I reached for my Fenton Phones. Dani should be trying to contact me by now, I thought. Not so much to my surprise, they weren't there.

"Great. Just perfect." I sighed.

"Daniel, I have changed my mind," Vlad said as I came down the stairs, "I was thinking it over last night, and it occurred to me that our original plan seemed too… obvious."

Of course. Why didn't I see this coming.

"Well, let's hear the new plan." I said, still standing at the bottom of the staircase.

"Instead of going after your father, you will go after that girl you've met." Vlad said.

"Danielle?" I asked.

"Yes, that's the one. I will take care of Jack."

I took this one as a complete shock.

"Is there a problem?" He asked me, as I stared at him. He could tell that I wasn't planning on such a drastic change.

"Uhm… no, it's just… I'm not… sure…"

"Do you not remember the reason you are here?"

"I know… but… she's the only one… who actually…" I trailed off, not able to find words that fit the description that I had for her.

"Just keep your opinions to yourself, and we won't have any problems."

"Yeah, I know. Sorry."

"Oh, and instead of going on the Ninth, I do think we will go back to Amity Park tomorrow."

"Ok." was my one-syllable reply.


	5. Chapter 5

Back in Amity Park, it was all set. Well, on Vlad's and my part it was. We reached my block by One-Thirty the next morning.

I went to Dani's house and floated into her bedroom.

"Danielle?"

"Danny? Is that you?" she asked, still half asleep.

"Yeah. Look, I've got some news."

"How'd you get away from Vlad?" she asked.

"I… I didn't. He changed the plans. We came today and… I… I… I just don't know what to do. how can we make this work?." I said

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"Vlad is going after my dad. He sent me to go after you." I said.

"What?"

Then, a bright light shone through her window.

"Daniel Fenton, we have the premise surrounded. You have the right to come peacefully. If you don't, we are authorized to use force."

"What? What's going on?" I asked.

"I don't know…" Dani said, jumping out of bed. she went over to her window and peered outside.

"It's the cops."

"Why?"

"I don't know, but… why don't we just go outside and try to settle things?"

I nodded. That was the best suggestion I had heard in a long time.

We walked downstairs and opened the front door. Dani went out first.

"Uhm.. excuse me, officers? Might I ask what Danny is being charged with?" she asked.

Two of the cops shoved her aside, came in and grabbed me.

"Daniel is being arrested for breaking and entering, and attempted murder." he said.

"What?!?" we asked at the same time.

"I'm sure you know the drill, kid. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you." he said.

"No, no this is all some huge mistake. Breaking and entering? Attempted murder? I… I just don't get it." Dani said.

"That same rule goes for you, miss. Anything you say can and will be used against him."

"No, sir, he wasn't… I mean he didn't… Attempted murder?" Dani asked.

"Yes, I believe we've established this."

"Who called you guys down here?"

"Uh…" another man shuffled through some papers. "Jack Fenton."

Dani sighed.

"Officer, I'm sorry that you've come down here so early in the morning, but you really needn't. Danny isn't –"

"Save it for court."

"Are you familiar with the term, 'dropping charges'?" I asked, "Because I think that's what she's trying to get across."

"She isn't the one who issued the charges. She can't drop them."

Jake and Abigail also came downstairs.

"What on Earth is happening here?" her mother asked.

"This young man has preformed break-and-enter, and has attempted murder on your daughter."

"Danny?" her father asked in surprise. "No, I simply refuse to believe that."

"Actually, Mr. Platto, I was ordered to, but didn't intend to. I'm very sorry if I caused anyone any trouble." I tried to explain.

"Officer, please, un-cuff him." Dani begged.

"Look, sweetie. I've got a job to do. And right now, that job is arresting your boyfriend, whether you think he's guilty or not." said the officer.

"He's not my boyfriend. And he's not guilty!"

"Even if he isn't, that still leaves the matter of breaking and entering."

"Danny is welcome here any time." Dani's mom said.

"Well, there still isn't any way to prove that there wasn't a murder plan here. We can, however, drop the charges for the breaking and entering. So, this is a closed case until court."

"Court?" Dani and I asked at the same time.

"Yep, court." and with that, he pushed me out of her house and into the patrol car.

"Hold up. If Danny's going, I'm going with him." she said.

"What?" her dad exclaimed.

"You heard me! Vlad obviously found out about our conversations, then made Danny come here two days early to overshadow his dad and place murder charges against him."

"How do you know that?"

"Dad, seriously, it's not rocket science. Keep up." she said with a slight smile

Jake sighed.

So, she got in the back with me, and we headed down to the station.

At one point, I had tried to go intangible, to free my hands, but the cuffs zapped me.

"Wha-what was that?" I asked. Dani looked astonished..

"Ectoplasm-resistant handcuffs."

"When did the A.P.P.D. get these?!?"

"Last week. Mr. Masters paid for them."

I sighed. Of course, I thought. And by the look of Dani's expression, she was thinking the same thing.

When we came to the police station, they led Dani and me to the visiting room with the same ectoplasm-resistant handcuffs.

The officer gave us a few minutes to talk things over, referring to Dani as my 'lawyer'.

"Ok, so you're telling me that Vlad found out about our conversations and took the Fenton Phones so that you couldn't tell me about his change of plans?" Dani asked.

"Yes, exactly."

"Ok, then it's on. Two can play at this game." she smiled.

"What are you talking about?" I said, confusedly.

"We need to get back at Vlad to prove you're innocent." she leaned forward against the table.

"How?" I asked.

"Oh, come on," she said, standing up, "after all those pranks you've pulled on Vlad, you're telling me that you can't come up with something as devious as to get you out of jail?"

"It's not that… It's just that… last time things really got out of hand."

"Last time, you weren't being arrested for false attempted murder!" she said.

"I just don't think that it's a good idea. If Vlad finds out that I -"

"But here's the thing. It's not going to be you." She transformed. "It's going to be me."

"Are you sure about this?" I asked.

"Positive."

I sighed. "Ok."

I couldn't wait to see what Dani had in mind.

Three days later, I was still stuck in jail – they called it juvenile detention, but it wasn't, it was jail .

Dani stopped by every day to discuss the progress of her plan. Usually, she stayed for about a half an hour.

Since her dad worked for the government, he was able to hook her up with everything that we needed. Those of which included a wireless security camera that showed on a monitor in the wardens' area, multiple miniature voice recorders that were connected to the P.A. system in the jail, and a pair of the ectoplasm-resistant handcuffs.

Vlad, being mayor of Amity Park, lived in Amity Park. However, at the time, Vlad was back in Wisconsin finishing up some previous deal with Skulker. Which was good news for us.

It meant that Dani would be able to rig his study with the equipment without Vlad knowing. She brought a Fenton Thermos just in case.

Her dad even took a pair of Fenton Phones and reversed them so that while they appeared to be off, they were on, and we could hear everything that Dani was saying.

Two days later, Vlad came back to Amity Park. Dani was waiting in the study of his house.

"Ok," we heard over the intercom, "Vlad's back. He should notice me soon."

Which, of course, he did.

"Skulker, I thought we – " he stopped, realizing that it wasn't Skulker. "Can I help you?" he asked.

"Yeah, and you can start by getting Phantom out of jail." she sneered.

"Look, girl. I don't know who you are, or why you're here, but I can assure you that I did not get Daniel arrested."

"Because I'm supposed to believe you?"

Vlad looked at Dani's Fenton Phones.

"Fenton gear, hmm? Ooh, big mistake." he said, his eyes glowing red.

Dani looked straight at him. "I'm not scared of you. I know who you are. I know what you're like, and about all of your powers." she said.

"Don't you see, girl? You're the reason Daniel is in jail. If you had just let him be, and have us go on with our original plan, he would be back home by now."

"That I get." she said, flatly. "But what I don't get is why you placed false attempted murder charges on him?"

"What are you? Fifteen? Of course you don't get it! If you really do know who I am, then you know that for the last half a year I've been trying to turn this town against Danny Phantom. What better way to do so then to tell them his secret?"

"That doesn't answer my question. Why the attempted murder charges? And overall, why overshadow his father to do so?"

Vlad sighed. "The youth of today are so narrow-minded." he muttered to himself. "Once you started having those secret conversations with Daniel, I needed to change our plans so that you wouldn't be able to ambush me. So, I told him to go after you. Knowing that he would not do anything to you, I called the cops."

"So, you created the false murder charges to make it look like Danny was going to attack me?"

"Yes. Originally, my plans were to have him kill Jack and then have him arrested for first degree murder. And since he would be found guilty, no one would believe him if he told them my secret."

"And you overshadowed his dad to make it seem less obvious that you had all of it planned out."

"Yes."

"Ok. One more question. Do you ever watch 'Concealed Camera'?" She asked.

"What does that have anything to do with Daniel?" he stopped and thought about it for a moment.

Dani pointed to the corner of the room with the camera.

"What? No! No!" exclaimed Vlad.

"Yeah," she laughed, "Narrow-minded."


	6. Chapter 6

Vlad growled and blasted Dani into the wall behind her.

The bookshelf that she was knocked into toppled forward, but he didn't stop. Vlad blasted the pile of wood and books with a continuous beam of ecto- energy.

After a few moments, a plume of smoke rose from the rubble. The bookshelf and its contents were almost completely vaporized. That's when Vlad stopped.

"C'mon, c'mon, c'mon." I whispered.

When the smoke disappeared, I could see a pink light. It was Dani's dome shield.

"Please, Vlad, It's not going to be that easy." she said as she got up.

"Maybe so, girl," he said as he blasted the camera. The image went blank. "But getting Daniel out of jail isn't going to be that easy, either."

Officer Kurtz Picked up his radio. "I want all units in there, now."

"What? No! Not yet!"

He looked at me for a moment. Then radioed his men again.

"Put that order on standby until further notice."

He walked back to the table.

"I can't believe that I'm taking orders from some kid." he mumbled.

For a while, all you heard over the transmission was white noise. Probably Dani and Vlad trying to blast each other.

Then, I felt something jab me in the back.

"Hey!" I exclaimed.

"Standard issue tazer gun. Nothin' personal, kid. Just precautions."

I sighed.

Then, a high pitched noise came over the line that was the Fenton Phones. It stopped, and all transmission died.

"How 'bout now, kid?" he asked as he reached for his radio. "Previous orders are no longer on standby. Go! Now!"

When the team finally got into Vlad's mansion, they radioed us.

"They're gone!"

"Then find them!"

Fifteen minutes later, they still couldn't find Vlad or Dani.

"Where is she?" he asked over the radio. Pause. "Then find her!" pause. "I don't care about the other one, just find the girl!" he shouted.

Suddenly, Dani fell, intangibly, through the ceiling, and crash-landed on the floor.

She looked out of breath and fairly surprised, but she didn't look hurt.

Dani stared up at me and smiled.

"Found her." I said, making her giggle.

"You ok, miss?" Officer Kurtz asked her as he helped her up.

"Yes, fine, thank you." Dani replied, reaching into her pocket.

She withdrew her hand and revealed a tiny silver key.

She walked over to the table, fit the key into the lock on the handcuffs, and unlocked them.

As I stood up, the officer walked over to the cassette recorder and took out the video and voice recordings.

"You do realize," he started, "That this doesn't clear everything up until court, right, kid?"

"Yes, sir."

"But seeing as how we have this bit of solid evidence, I suppose we can … downgrade this to a house arrest." he said.

"House arrest?" I said, a bit too nervously.

Dani smiled softly and said, "Sir, would it be alright if Danny served his house arrest at my place? I'm not so sure that he's ready to talk to his parents about all this."

"Only if you're sure that it's ok."

"Completely."

That night, at nine o clock, I knocked on Dani's bedroom door.

"Yeah Danny?" she stepped aside so I could go in. Her nightgown flowed as she walked. Of all people, except maybe Sam, she was the last person that would have expected to wear a nightgown.

"Thank you."

"For what?" she asked.

"For what. For everything! Since you got here, you've been one hundred percent supportive of me. You practically petitioned for me back at town hall."

"In case you're forgetting: I'm the reason you're in this mess!"

"Yeah, but you're also helping me get out of it." we sat down on her two of her giant bean bags.

"Of course I'm going to! Since 2004, I've followed Danny Phantom! For four years, I've believed in you. For four years, I've told myself that you were real. I finally meet you, and now that I can do something about it, I'm not going to let them tear you down like that." she snapped her fingers.

"See! I want you to tell me everything you know about me."

So, we sat and talked. About an hour later, Dani stopped.

"That's everything? C'mon, is there anything you don't know?"

"You're birthday."

"February 17th, 1992. Pisces."

"January 12th, 1992. Capricorn. Ha, I'm a month older than you." she said teasingly.

I laughed and nudged her.

"Uhm… I was watching one of your tapes, and it seems the last time you taped it was August of 2007. What happened?"

"Butch Hartman. He stopped. Said that he didn't want to pay for any more episodes. The show was canceled. Fans held so many petitions, city-marches, and protests…"

"Oh."

"But that was Butch Hartman's choice. Not because the ratings were low." she said quickly, "In fact, they were through the roof!"

"Really?"

"Yeah!"

"People actually took their time to watch me?"

"Uh-huh." she replied.

"Dani, you've come from a strange, strange world."

"So funny." she said, sarcastically.

Before we knew it, Dani's little LCD clock had started beeping.

She reached onto her little nightstand and grabbed the clock, looking at it closely to see the time in the dark.

"Whoa. Two- thirty." she yawned. "I guess I can skip practice today."

When she put the clock back, she knocked down a paper.

In the dim light, I saw that it was an old essay paper. A letter to Butch Hartman.

Dani was sleepily looking over my shoulder.

"I wrote that in the sixth grade."

I could just make out the last two sentences.

"I look up to Danny? He is my hero?" I asked.

"Yes, Danny, you are the kindest, most inspiring, intelligent person I've ever met. And, trust me, when you've moved eleven times, eleven different states, you meet a lot of people." she said, closing her eyes.

"Dani, you must really be tired. Do you hear yourself?"

"You know those attempted murder charges were false." she said.

Too tired to argue, I just leaned back.

Neither of us said anything for a moment.

"Hey, Dani?"

"Mmhmm?"

"What if… what if they don't accept me… because I'm half ghost?" I asked.

Dani shot up from her rather tired-looking position.

"What?"

"C'mon, Dani. you know that my parents have been hunting me down almost since I got my powers. And with Vlad trying to turn Amity Park against me… What if he actually does? What if he convinces them that it would be best if they just… got rid of me…?"

I felt Dani's hand on my shoulder.

"Please, Danny. I don't want you to be like that. You know that your parents love you too much for that to even come close to crossing their minds. I promise you that that will never happen. And even if it did, we'd make it better. I'm here for you. No matter what." she said.

"Vlad might…" I trailed off.

"Might what?"

"Like on election day. What if Vlad overshadows you, Sam, Tucker, and Jazz? Or – what if he turns them against all of us? He can take the fact that you support Danny Phantom, and he will twist it until everyone in this town thinks you're possessed or corrupted."

"Danny." she said. "Take it easy. Nothing is going to stop me from helping you." she said.

"Chances are, he's gonna pull some kind of twisted trick."

"Chances are, it's going to blow up in his face."

I sighed.

"Danny?"

"Yeah?" I looked over at her, but could barely see anything in the dark.

"You're still my hero. You always will be. No matter what." she said.

I smiled.

"Thanks." Pause. "Dani?"

"Mmhmm?"

"Promise me something?"

"Hmm?"

"Promise me that I'll get out of this?"

"I… promise…" she said before she fell asleep.

I laid my head back, closed my eyes, and sighed deeply.

The next morning, Mr. Platto opened the door, letting too much light in at once.

I heard him call my name.

"Yes, sir?" I said, at the exact same time Dani said, "Yes, Daddy?"

With a somewhat sickening feeling, I realized that I had fallen asleep in Dani's room, and that her father knew that I was there.

I immediately stood up.

Jake stood there, looking rather shocked to see me in his fourteen-year-old daughter's bedroom, both of us on the floor, in our pajamas (or in her case, night gown. Wow. Night gown….) Right now, the only thing going through my head was: Me. Here. Under house arrest. Cop. Gun.

Jake stood there, waiting for me to say something. I stood there, waiting for me to say something.

"I – I – I'm so sorry, sir." I stammered, rubbing the back of my neck. "I really didn't mean to… We were just talking… and then, well, we, uhm… lost track of time… and, uh, just fell asleep. Honestly, sir… Please forgive me… I really am sorry, sir."

Dani stood up and walked over to me. Feverishly, I inched away from her, in case that suggested to him that I wasn't telling the truth about what happened overnight.

I looked back at Dani, who was grinning widely. "C'mon, Danny. He knows you better than to think that…" she said. Did he? His only daughter? That's got over-protective written all over it.

Jake laughed.

"Calm down. She's right. It's fine. I just came to tell Dee that Mr. and Mrs. Fenton called, and they said that Danny wasn't answering his phone. Now I know why. You were in here. I take it you don't have your cell on you?" I shook my head, still tense from the wake up. "They were wondering if you could call them back, hoping you knew if he was alright." Pause. "They sounded really worried about you, Danny. Maybe you should go talk to them."

I decided that I'd have to talk to my parents sooner or later.

So, I asked Dani if she would come with me to do so.

"Gladly." she said, smiling.

As I knocked on the front door (my house key was still in my room), I felt sick.

"C'mon, Danny. Their your parents."

"Yeah, but my parents –"

"Love you, Danny. I want you to realize that."

"I do. It's just… sometimes, my parents get so wrapped up in what they do." I said.

"That may be so, but I highly doubt that they would get so wrapped up as to hurt you."

"You're right. I'm just being… paranoid." I took a deep breath. Amazingly, it calmed me down.

My mom opened the door.

Suddenly, I felt sick again.

__

Gasp! An Author's Note! Hey, you know, this has to be my LEAST favorite part of the story. I had to make up a birthdate for BOTH those darn kids! It was murder on my brain.

Anywho, I just wanted to intervene at this point, not only to delay you from reding the NEXT chapter and resolving this MASSIVE cliffhanger (...), but also to say thank you to all of the people who are taking their time to read this peice of crap. I'm going to say one or two more hting b4 I goes: 1) I have PLENTY of more OC's coming... I was OC HAPPY when I wrote this! And 2) That was in the sixth grade. Since then, I have written two (2) other Dani Phantom stories which I have been too lazy to type and have decided to junk after all, a prolouge, an epilouge for each of the three stories, and just random shorts (my favorite of which being the sports short which I may post seperately.) You have endured this note because there will not be many others.

~Tib Dunncan


	7. Chapter 7

"Danny?"

I stared down at my feet.

"Danny, are you alright, sweetie?" she asked.

Still looking down, I nodded.

My mom threw her arms around me and squeezed me so tightly that I could barely breath.

"Oh, my baby boy! Thank goodness you're alright! What happened? Where were you? You were supposed to be back over a week ago!"

"Umm… there was a change of plans."

"Well, both of you, come on in and you can tell us what happened." she said.

I didn't move, but Dani smiled and nudged me forward.

There was no doubt about it. There was definitely an awkward atmosphere in Fenton Works as we all sat down. Even Dani seemed a bit uneasy.

"Why didn't you tell us?" my mom finally asked.

I hadn't thought it was possible, but at that moment, I felt worse than before.

"I just wasn't sure how you would… react…"

"Danny. Oh, no, Danny. Never."

"All this time we've been hunting down Danny Phantom. We never wanted to hurt you. If you had told us…" my dad said.

"Well, you seemed so intent on finding Danny Phantom and ripping him apart molecule by molecule. I thought you might not… care… anymore." I looked around the room. There were no visible ecto-weapons, no G.I.W. agents.

"Danny, don't you know that we love you too much to ever do anything to you?"

I smiled.

"Yeah, I do. I was just being paranoid."

They smiled right back.

"And thank you, Danielle, for standing up for our son back at town hall."

"Any day."

Then, we heard a knock on the door. Jazz got up and went and opened it.

"Danny?" she called. She sounded a bit nervous.

"Yeah?" I asked, headed towards the door.

"I think its for you…!" Four guys in white agent stood at the entrance.

My parents and Dani all came to the front door.

"Get away from him." my mom said, stepping in front of me.

"Calm down, Mrs. Fenton. We're not going to do anything to your son."

I pushed my way back to the front.

"What do you want?" I asked bitterly.

"Mr. Masters has issued an emergency meeting regarding the debate over Danny Phantom and has ordered for both of you to attend." he said, grabbing Dani and me by the wrist.

Dani didn't say a word, just followed them into the car, as did I. Looking out the back window, I saw the other two agents leading my parents and Jazz into another car.

About four minutes later, we were at town hall.

Outside the building currently packed with people, one of the G.I.W. agents placed some kind of wristband on me.

"What are you doing?" I asked, pulling my arm away.

"It's anti-ectoplasmic. You can change to your ghost form, but you can't use any of your other powers." After a moment, it beeped and disappeared.

"Where'd it go?" Dani asked.

"Nowhere. All it's done is absorb your invisibility and intangibility powers. You still can't create ecto-energy, though."

I sighed.

"Twisted tricks, guaranteed." I whispered to Dani.

She nodded and kept walking.

As we walked towards the stage, and Vlad, the people in the isles stared at me.

"I don't like this…" I told her.

"It's okay. Neither do I."

We stepped onto the stage.

"Ah, so nice that you two could join us." Vlad said.

"Like we had a choice." Dani sneered.

Vlad pretended to be offended.

"Oh, come on, we're all friends here, right?"

"No." Dani and I chorused.

"Well," Vlad said, "everyone is entitled to their opinion. Which is exactly why we're all here."

"If ours mattered, we wouldn't be here right now." I muttered.

"What was that?" Vlad asked.

"Oh, nothing." I said, as cheerfully as possible.

I leaned in close to him and whispered, "Watch it, Plasmius. Your secret can be revealed just as suddenly and publicly as mine was."

"No! If we tell anybody, that will give him a way to be able to turn the whole town against us!" Dani said, pulling me away.

"But –" I started.

"Please?" she asked sweetly.

"Dani –" I sighed.

"No. If we tell the town that, Vlad will make it so that they will all think that we're lying, just to drag him into this."

Vlad placed microphone headsets on the both of us.

"Now, I'm sure you both know how this'll work. All of the people on the left side are for Danny Phantom, and all of the people on the right side are against." he said.

Dani groaned in dismay.

Almost three fourths of the people in town hall were on the right side. There were only about seventeen hundred people.

"Who would like to open the discussion?" Vlad asked the crowd.

Nobody said anything.

"Okay, then, I will." he turned towards us. "And in case you were wondering, I'm against."

"I think we got that." Dani said coldly.

Vlad turned back to the crowd of people.

"Danny Phantom has overstayed his welcome." he started. "Not only has he put nearly the whole town's lives at risk by challenging other ghosts to come to Amity Park, but when they do come, he is powerless to stop them!"

"How so?" Dani piped up.

"Dear girl," Vlad said, in a tone almost mistakable for caring, practically petting Dani "He may have corrupted you, but surly you can see that if he was so able to stop these ghosts, than we would not have any ghost problems, would we?"

"Corrupt…?" she said quietly.

About one hundred fifty of the four hundred twenty five people on the left side got up and moved to the 'against' side.

"Oh, and, did I mention that after everyone has moved from the left side, that wristband will get rid of Danny Phantom once and for all?"

"What?!?" Dani exclaimed. And for the first time since I had met her, she actually looked nervous.

She closed her eyes and sat on the floor of the stage.

"Dani? You okay?" I asked.

"Peachy." she mumbled, half into her lap.

"C'mon. It's not the end of the world." I said.

"Danny, these people are completely oblivious to the fact that you have been keeping them safe since you got your powers. Without you, they might as well drop a nuclear bomb on this town, 'cuz we're done for."

"You do realize that your headset is still on, don't you?" I said.

She checked the power switch. It was, in fact, on.

"Uhm…" she tried to cover up.

Excessive muttering was heard throughout the crowd.

There was another massive switch of people.

"Danny, can you get that bracelet off?" she asked, quietly.

I grabbed at where the wristband had been.

"No. My intangibility power must be making it so that I can't get it off."

Vlad continued-

"And, furthermore, Amity Park would not have any ghost problems if it weren't for Danny Phantom!"

"That is a total LOAD, right, Dani?"

She winced.

"No, Dani…" I moaned.

"Actually…" she trailed off as she looked at Vlad. "…he's partially correct." she covered her mike. "When you turned the portal on, you got your powers, but you also opened the rift between our world and the ghost zone."

He smirked.

"Not even one of his best friends can stand against that."

Ninety-seven people remained on our side.

"Look," Dani said, "I know that most of you don't trust him – or the fact that all he's trying to do is protect Amity Park – but he is the nicest person I have ever met. Now, what Vlad said about Amity Park's 'Ghost Problem' is partially true, but think about this," She said to the crowd, "Danny didn't have to dedicate his time to fighting ghosts to keep everyone safe. He didn't have to risk his life when the ghost king pulled Amity Park into the ghost zone."

"Yes, well, no one asked him to do any of that in the first place, did they?" we heard from above the crowd.

A copy of Vlad Plasmius floated over the pew-like benches.

Dani sighed as people broke out into panic.

"CALM DOWN!" I shouted into my mouthpiece.

So they did, despite the excessive nervous whispering.

"Look, Plasmius-" Dani started.

"You know him?" Vlad asked, acting surprised. She ignored him.

I transformed, not very surprised at what Vlad was trying to pull.

"-If I were you, I'd just go away, because if you do anything-"

"Alright, you carbon copy freak, I have had it!" I shouted, taking a running start to the edge of the stage.

"Danny! Stop! You cant-"

I leapt off the stage and fell to the ground before she had the chance to finish her sentence.

"-fly."

Plasmius swooped down, grabbed me by the neck and hoisted me some twenty feet off the ground.

I twisted and jerked, hoping that I could loosen his grip. No luck.

"Let… GO!" I shouted, the words echoing on the stereo system.

"Not a chance." He said angrily, as he waved his had over my face, causing an odd ectoplasmic substance to cover my mouth, stopping me from speaking. It creepily reminded me of Dan, and how he used a similar power to silence my friends, family, and Mr. Lancer when he strapped them against the vats of Nasty Sauce.

"Oh, for cryin'-out-loud…" Dani sighed as she morphed.

I heard many gasps and surprised cries from the crowd below.

She blasted Plasmius, who then let go of me, sending me falling to the ground.

Dani darted forward and caught me. When we had landed, the crowd was dead silent.

"Unbelievable!" Vlad exclaimed, with semi-genuine surprise. "She is also half ghost! And she is defending one of her own… kind."

Danielle turned around to stare at him. I swear, when she does that, it's scary. "Okay, look," she demanded. "I don't know who on earth you think you are, but you seriously need to stop trashing on Danny." she said, transforming back into her human form.

"It only figures that SHE could even possibly stand up for him." Vlad said to the shocked crowd.

"Trust me, Vlad – I would be here defending him whether I had my powers or not. He's been my hero since long before I got here."

"What has he done to be your hero?" Vlad asked.

"When no one in Amity Park even WANTED Danny here, he still protected you. This town made him public ghost enemy number one, he still protected you. You do realize, though, that if you keep this up, eventually, he may just give up, and when you need him, he may not be here.

"Your deterrence may give him reason to get rid of his gift." she said.

"His gift?" someone shouted from the crowd, "More like our curse!"

Dani took a deep breath.

"Okay," she sighed. "We may not all see eye to eye about Danny, But I've known him for a long time. And while other people might've reaped the benefit of having ghost powers – Going intangible during a football game, or floating during a cheerleading competition to perfect the move that they couldn't get – but Danny used his GIFT to help and protect the people he cares about."

"He held our last mayor hostage, stole from our banks and museums, and nearly cost my dad his job at Axion Labs!" Neither Dani nor myself saw who said it, but we had a pretty good idea of who it was.

"Val…" I started.

"Don't 'Val' me, you know what you did!" she said as she rose above the crowd on her hover board.

She wasn't going to listen. She was going to fight Danny Phantom.

Within seconds, she had one of her many ecto weapons aimed directly at me. It whined as it charged, getting ready to blast me into next century. I put my arms up to shield myself and tried to go intangible. As we both know, that didn't exactly work, so I ended up being hit with a good head on force that sent me backstage.

"Danny!" Shouted Danielle.

She started to fly towards me, but I saw Vlad catch her by her ankle.

"Ah, ah, ah. Let her do her job, hmmm?" Vlad said.

Dani turned around, and, with her free leg, kicked him in the jaw.

By that time, Valerie was getting ready to blast me again.

"Val, listen to me!"

"I'm done listening!"

"Val! How long have you known me?"

"What does that have to do with anything, ghost?"

"How long have you known me?" I asked again. "I mean really known me."

"Since that ghost king scenario. Not very long, I guess." she said.

"But you do know that I would NEVER want to intentionally hurt anyone, right?" I asked.

"No. You just want to use us to get what you want."

"No! What happened between us was a huge misunderstanding!"

"I told you, I'm through listening!" she shouted.

She blasted me again. I was about two seconds to unconsciousness.

Valerie recharged her weapon.

I wasn't going to fight back. I couldn't fight back.


	8. Chapter 8

"Valerie, stop!" Dani shouted, as she blasted the ecto weapon out of Valerie's hand.

"I have HAD it with ghosts!" she shouted, getting ready to blast me again. Her ecto weapon, this time, was bigger, and reminded me of the ecto-eliminator 49, one of the weapons that the Guys in White use.

She pulled the trigger.

Dani, however, created an ecto shield at literally the last possible second.

When she landed next to me, she expanded it to become a dome shield.

"You okay?" she asked. I tried to sit up.

"I'll live." I replied, semi-sarcastically, my head spinning.

Dani got up.

"Stay here."

"I'll try." I said, as I was hit by another wave of dizziness.

"Valerie, please, listen to me!"

"Why ghost?" she shouted.

"Val, Amity Park has known Danny Fenton for fifteen years. He only got his powers last year. And, I admit, having these abilities changed him, but only for the better. I promise."

"Said the ghost girl." Vlad quipped.

"Look, Vlad, it's obvious that you don't like us. We get it. But could you please stay OUT OF THIS!" she roared.

"No!" Valerie started, "Mr. Masters gave me this ecto suit, and I want to here what he has to say!"

"The only reason he gave you that suit was to spy on Danny." Dani said, uncertainly. I mean, of course she was right, but with everything that was going on, she wasn't too sure if it was the smartest thing to throw into a conversation.

"Why would he want to spy on Danny?" she asked, quizzically.

"Val, he's known bout Danny's powers for a long time. That he was half ghost. Vlad was just waiting for the right time to tell everyone in Amity Park. He doesn't want anyone to trust Danny. But none of what he says is true!" I couldn't tell if she was angry or upset. A bit of both, I think.

""Well, obviously, there's got to be a good reason, right?" Valerie asked, not wanting what Danielle had said to be true.

"No, Val. There isn't."

"Untrue," Vlad said, "I want what's best for my people. They made me their mayor, and, as their mayor, I want to ensure their safety and wellbeing…"

"Then start a town trust fund…" I muttered. Unfortunately, my microphone was still on.

"You, my boy, have absolutely no say in this, whatsoever." Vlad said, looking back at me.

"Look, Plasmius, I don't even want to be here, and-" I stopped. Tell me I didn't just say that, I thought.

Dani put her hand to her forehead and sighed.

"What did you just call him?"

"Nothing, it wasn't important." I said quickly.

"No. I want to know what you just called him!"

"I said…" I looked back over at Vlad. There was something wrong. No way he was just going to let me blow his secret like that.

"Go on… tell the girl what you called me." he smirked.

"…Plasmius."

Valerie looked at Dani. "Didn't you just call that ghost 'Plasmius?" she asked.

She didn't answer. However, she did put the dome shield down, phase me out of the building and over to her house.

"Oh, crud… this is NOT good. How are we going to fix this?" She asked, pacing nervously.

"Calm down, Dani. Please. Why can't they find out about Vlad's powers?" I asked.

"If we tell Amity Park that Vlad is half ghost, He's most likely going to make everyone think that we're trying to turn them against him. Nobody will believe us, let alone trust us."

"Dani, seriously, chill. You're getting all worked up over something that most likely won't happen." I said.

She picked up the remote and turned on our local news station. Vlad was talking to Valerie, who had, by now, removed her ecto gear. The screen flickered to another station. CSPAN.

"Why CSPAN?" I asked. Then I saw. The debate. The same picture that was on our local news channel was on the NATIONAL news!

"That means…." Dani started.

"That means the whole country knows my secret." I said softly as I sat down on her bed.

She walked over to me and placed a hand on my shoulder. "I'm sorry." I could hear her voice quiver. "I never wanted this. I'm sorry, Danny."

I touched her hand. "I really can't believe this is happening." I whispered. "But it's not your fault."

"Yes, it is, Danny. It is. It's all my fault." she looked up at the television and gasped.

"What?" I asked looking up. There were only about sixteen people left on our side before the wristband zapped me.

"Oh, my gosh, we need to get that bracelet off of you NOW!" she said.

"How?" I honestly didn't know how she planned to get it off.

"Uhm…" she closed her eyes. "What about… What about the Ghost Catcher?!" she asked excitedly.

She phased me into our lab before I had the chance to say anything. In one corner of the lab was the Ghost Catcher.

"You sure about this?" I asked as she picked it up.

"Completely! The Guys in Whit agent place this Bracelet on you while you were in your human form, so if we separate your ghost half and your human half, it should reappear on Danny Fenton."

"And since Danny Fenton Doesn't have any ghost powers, we'll be able to get it off. Right?" I finished.

"Let's hope so."

She lowered the Ghost Catcher over me. Just as she said, my ghost half was separated from my human half. Also, the wristband appeared on 'Fun Danny's' wrist.

She examined the bracelet.

"There's a lock." she said.

"Perhaps the key you took from Vlad's study will unlock it?" asked 'Super Danny', as he came back from my bedroom, a bed sheet tied around his neck like a cape.

Dani couldn't help but smile. "Good idea." she reached into her pocket and pulled out the key. It didn't fit.

'Super Danny' turned on the TV. "Two people left. A mother and a child, it looks…"

"Hold on…" I saw her hand glow hot pink, as well as the key. She placed it into the keyhole and pressed, "Phantom! Come here and freeze this, will you?"

"Mother's gone, but the child doesn't want to move with her to the other side."

"It's okay…"

"What's this thing do again?"

"You get shocked. But just hang tight and It'll be off before then."

Dani turned it in the lock and it unlocked the wristband.

"The mother is trying to pull the child off of the benches."

It came apart. Dani took it off, re-closed it, and dropped it to the floor as 'Super Danny' and 'Fun Danny' Flew back through the ghost catcher. Finally, I was one person again.

The kid got up.

As soon as it did, the wristband sparked.

That was it? That's all? I thought.

Then, it practically lit up in a cascade of green electrical sparks.

Vlad smirked, and after a moment, we heard him say, "Thank you for your opinion. Danny Phantom now knows he is not welcome here and will never show himself again."

Dani was quiet, but when I looked at her, I saw that same expression that she had when we were at Town Hall. Only magnified by, like, a bazillion.

"Dani? You okay?" I asked

"NO! Danny, that thing could have killed you! It WOULD have killed you!" she replied.

"Calm down. C'mon. You got it off me. It's fine."

"No, it's not. I am so tired of Vlad trying to ruin your life or hurt you. It needs to stop." She picked up the wristband that, by now, had stopped sparking. She flew out of the house. I followed her. Can you guess where she went? Town Hall.

She phased through the ceiling.

"Ah, Danielle. Come to apologize on behalf of Danny Phantom?"

She chuckled. "Not quite." she unfolded her arms and held out the wristband. "This is going to stop. You understand?" She tossed it to him; it landed at his feet.

"Well, where is Danny Phantom, then?"

I became visible next to Dani.

"Right here, Fruitloop." I said.

Suddenly, Dani pushed me, hard, to the right. An ectobeam flew past us, barely missing Dani. We landed next to one of the isles on the right side of the room.

"Get him! Get him away from them!" Vlad shouted. Apparently, he was referring to the crowd to whom we landed next to.

Two G.I.W. agents grabbed Dani.

"Hey! Let go of her!" I shouted. I flew towards them, hoping that they knew that either they let go of her, or I ram into them.

Two more G.I.W. agents came out of either sides of the room. They grabbed my arms and pulled me back. I flew at the highest speed that I could, but they wouldn't let go. They flung me backwards and I hit the wall. I just stayed there, stunned.

"Danny!" she cried.

I stood up, a little dizzy, but one of the agents pushed me down again.

One of them was wearing something that closely resembled Vlad's Ghost Gauntlets. He grabbed my shoulders.

"No! You get away from him!" With a quick jerk of her arms, she broke free and darted forward, taking aim and blasting the two men standing over me.

"See!" Vlad said, "That's all that the can do! All they're good for is pain and destruction!"

Dani helped me up. "You okay?" she asked.

"Yeah, I'm… fine." I answered.

She stood up.

"Look, Vlad," she said, "You seriously need to back off. If you try to hurt Danny one more time, I will personally make your life a living nightmare."

"Is that a threat?" Vlad asked.

"No! No, it wasn't." I said quickly.

Vlad stared back at me. Since I was the only one who could see, he allowed his eyes to glow blood red, as the are when he's in his ghost form.

"Let Danielle speak for herself, hmm?" he turned back towards her. "Now, was that a threat?"

Eyes wide, I shook my head, no. I must've looked like a deer in the headlights to her.

"Well?"

"N- no. It wasn't," she said, reverting her gaze from me.

"Good." Vlad said, walking back towards the stage. "Take them to one of the new ghost-proof cells until he can figure out where he's going to go." Pause. "Amity Park has voted. The majority says: Daniel is not welcome here. And as for the girl – I'll decide weather she stays or not." he said as he were half led, half dragged out the door.

Almost an hour and a half had gone by before Vlad came in.

"Have you figured out where you could possibly go?"

I sighed.

"Oh, and, Danielle – I've decided that you will stay here. You still have a chance in this town." he opened the cell door.

"Dani, I-" but she had bolted out the door before I had the chance to finish my sentence.

"Wonderful friend you've found yourself, Daniel."

"You're wrong, Vlad. Dead wrong." I said.

"If you say so. But trust me: she's not coming back."

Two and a half hours passed, and Dani still hadn't come back.

Vlad's wrong, I'd tell myself, She's coming. I know it.

And, yet, another two hours passed.

I heard the outside door open and sat up. Unfortunately, it was only Vlad. I sunk back to the floor.

"Daniel, it's been more than four hours. GIVE IT UP!" he said.

"No!" And at that same exact moment, Dani flew through the open door.

she stopped about a foot from the cell door.

"Hey," she whispered, pushing a strand of hair from her eyes as she landed.

"Where'd you go? You were gone for almost five hours…"

"Re…member those… petitions I told you about?"

"Yeah."

"I led a lot of them. Formed a small army of about seven hundred kids. Called it Ally."

"What does that have to do with anything?" Vlad asked.

Dani turned around and cupped her hands to her mouth. "C'mon, Guys!" she shouted.

One by one, some two hundred fifty kids filed into the room.

"Okay, as you know, we have been working on stopping the cancellation of Danny Phantom. Not exactly the most successful thing we've done. However, there have been some events, here in Amity Park, that have been brought to my attention. Vlad, being the wonderful person he is, has turned Amity Park against Danny.

"Now, we need to start working on helping Amity Park realize that they're wrong about Danny. Okay, you two. C'mon."

The crowd parted and two of the kids came out.

A red-haired boy with freckles and a girl with long blond hair; wire-frame glasses resting on the bridge of her nose made her look like a lawyer.

"Danny, Fruitloop – This is Cody Roghe, my chief of command," she gestured to the boy. "and Lindsey Hawethorn, my secretary of defense. Two of the three council members of Ally." she said.

"Hi… I'm Danny Phantom…" I said.

"Oh, yeah, they know who you are."

"Well, obviously…" Vlad said.

"Ignoring you…" Dani said.

"So… they know everything you know?"

"Everything." she said.

Vlad sighed.

"Danny, you've got four minutes to decide, then, this room is gassed and you will be brought wherever my men feel they need to take you. Weather that be the Gobi desert or the bottom of the ocean, I could care less. So, Danielle, I suggest you move your little fan club out." Vlad said, as he left.

Lindsey stepped forward and stopped about an inch from Vlad. "Look, I don't care if you're mayor of Amity Park of president of these United States, but THIS," she gestured towards me, "better be fixed, 'cuz Ally will not stop until-"

"Lin? Okay, Lin, he knows." Cody said, pulling her away from him.

Dani stepped closer and stuck her hand through the bars. I grabbed it and she pulled me up.

I took her other hand through the bars.

"Don't do anything dangerous, okay?" I asked.

"Kay," she replied, smiling. "I promise, we're going to fix this."

All of a sudden, from the crowd, we heard, "Awwwwe! Dani! You're, like, the luckiest girl in the world!"

She laughed and I could see that she was turning blush. That even got a laugh out of me, considering where I was.

"Way to ruin a moment Callie!" someone else said.

Dani laughed even harder.

"I swear, they're out to get me." she said as she giggled.

"I could imagine." I replied.

"One minute…" Vlad warned.

Dani turned to her friends and said, "Okay, guys, we need to get moving…"

So, they all filed out of the room, just as orderly as they came in.

"Well, that was Ally."

"I can't believe you introduced Vlad as Fruitloop…"

"Well, that's what we always call him…"

"Oh…" I looked down. When I looked up, Dani seemed very sad and upset. "What's wrong?" I asked.

"Ever since my biological mother died, nothing has been the same." she said, "Meeting you was the best thing that has happened to me in a long time. And I really don't want it to have to end." she whimpered.

"Why would it end?" I asked, grabbing her hands again.

"Danny, if we can't stop Vlad from… EVICTING… you, then what's gonna happen?"

"I don't know, but if anything DOES happen, we'll just take it from there." I said, with a slight smile.

"How, Danny? How?"

"There's got to be something… Some kind of compromise that we can make with-"

"Compromise? Danny! That's it!"

"What's it?"

"We can tell Amity Park that you'll get rid of you're powers!" she said.

"What?!" I backed up. "Dani, you're not serious, right?" This surprised me. Dani was fiercely behind being different, and this wasn't exactly my idea of how to fix things. "Tell me you're just kidding. Please?"

"No, Danny. It would work. Hear me out?"

"Fine, Dani. But of all the things, I'm not too sure that's particularly what I want to do. I mean, I wouldn't-"

"Trade your powers for the world?" she said.

"Right. And even if I wanted to, I don't think it would be possible. My parents would still have to take the portal down to stage one, and by then… No, it wouldn't work."

"Danny, Listen to me. You won't have to. We tell them that you're willing to get rid of your powers, then, while they're trying to figure out how, Ally can make Amity Park realize that you shouldn't have to."

"Okay… I just hope that Vlad-"

"Vlad what?" he asked as he walked back into the room.


	9. Chapter 9

"We've come up with a compromise." I stated.

"No compromises! Danny Phantom needs to leave!"

"And he will…" Dani chimed in, pulling Vlad away from the cell. "If he could get rid of his ghost powers…"

"I wasn't born yesterday, girl. That's impossible."

"No, it's not Vlad. Seriously, we want to compromise."

"Vlad, we know that the only reason you're doing this is to get me back for not killing my father!" I shouted.

"Not only that, Daniel, but you've made it your point to mock me, and even after I save your life…" His voice steadily rose.

"You're the one that got me into that mess!"

"Vlad, stop." Dani said.

"Don't tell me to 'stop'."

"We're not going to get anywhere with you two arguing!" Dani exclaimed.

"She has a point." I said.

"Daniel, don't you see? YOU HAD THIS COMING!!!" He shouted

"Vlad, STOP!!!" she shoved him backwards, away from the cell.

Vlad glared at her, his hands glowing their ghostly pink. Dani had always thought that the whole fact that it was PINK was absolutely hilarious! Of course, no matter what, she always laughed at the word fruitloop. "Girl, I rarely loose my temper, but you are testing my patients."

"That 'girl' has a name. Use it." I said

Suddenly, he grabbed her arm and blasted her; she fell. Still holding her arm, he flung her backwards, into the hall behind him. She hit the ground, nearly unconscious.

Vlad walked closer to the cell, and took an ecto-gun off of the table near him.

"This is over." he turned the gun on and pointed it at me.

I tried to fly around the cell, so that he would hopefully miss me, buying some more time. I realized it was no use. The cell was small, Vlad had a clear shot and good aim.

I tried to stall until I could think of a way out. "Wha- what are you going to tell everyone? If I'm gone, aren't people going to want to know where I went?"

"I'll simply tell them that you took off as soon as you decided where to go." he replied

"What if my mom found out? What would she think of you?" I asked.

"As much as I love your mother, I'll have to learn to live with it." Vlad steadied his hand.

Just as he was about to blast me, he toppled forward. Behind him, Dani stood, her hand still glowing a vibrant pink.

"You okay?" we asked each other. She smiled.

She walked towards the cell door as she reached into her pocket, pulling out a key. She softened it with the ectoplasmic power, then placed it into the lock and I chilled it, making it hard, again. She turned the key and the door swung open.

"Thanks." I said.

"C'mon!" she said, apparently recovering quickly from her blast. "Ally's already started their city-march!" So, we flew to town square.

When we got there, it was like something out of a television show movie. Two hundred fifty kids chanting "Danny Phantom"; the road to east Amity blocked by eight to thirteen squad cars.

As Ally saw us flying toward them, they started screaming and shouting like kids at a Dumpty Humpty block party.

Dani and I landed in front of the crowd.

"Are you Dani Platto?" one of the officers asked.

"Yes. Can I help you?"

"These kids say you're leading this march. True?"

"Yes, sir, it is. Is there a problem?"

"You got three hundred kids marching through the city, chanting 'Danny Phantom', and you ask if there's a problem?"

Dani and the officer had gone through some length of conversation, but I wasn't particularly paying much attention.

"Danny Phantom?" one of the officers asked, waving a hand at the officers behind him.

"Yes?" It came out as more of a question than the reply it was supposed to be.

As the two other officers walked towards me, I backed up, right into Dani. I fell down on top of her, and we both hit the ground.

"We're not gonna hurt you, kid." said one of the officers as he stepped forward and grabbed my arm and pulled me up off the ground.

The other one grabbed my fee arm.

"Dani…?" I managed to squeak.

"Just hang tight." she walked up to the officer that seemed to be in charge. "Sir," she started, "will you please tell your men to stand down?"

Oh, yeah, cuz' that will help.

"Sorry, little lady," he said. Dani looked slightly peeved at the comment, but she seemed to ignore it. "but there are people here, and we're just making sure that they stay safe."

"Sir, Danny would never hurt anyone."

"You got proof?"

"Yes. Yes we do." she said.

"We do?" I asked. I paused. "We do!"

Dani looked back at me and smiled.

So, Dani told the club to head to her house. "I know that the tapes were at my house, but I couldn't send three hundred kids to the Nasty Burger. Especially considering where they're from." she said, as she walked out of the door, the tapes in hand.

Then, we headed to my house. She put the tapes in the VCR and ran it to the episode of Public Enemies, which was the one where Walker frames me, but, if you're reading this, I'm sure you already know that. However, that thought hadn't crossed my mind until Walker actually showed up.

I started to panic. What if they thought that I was just a fugitive ghost? What if they don't believe it?

Dani must've sensed this, because she got up, came and sat down next to me, put her arm around me and rested her head on my shoulder. "C'mon, Danny. Everything's going to be fine. I promise."

I reached across and placed my hand on her shoulder.

We sat in that position for the next fifteen minutes.

Then, her cell phone rang. She got up, smiled at me, and headed into the kitchen. "Hello?" I heard. "What do you mean?" Pause. "He's there? Okay, just remember what I told you- portal's the blue button, shield is the green button."

Dani cane back into the living room.

"What is it?" I asked.

"I've got to go, but I will be back soon." she turned to leave.

"Where are you going?"

"My place. They've got a problem with the fruitloop." she phased through the ceiling.

"Wait up!" I flew after her.

We phased into her basement. All of the petitioning team was down there.

"Would someone like to tell me what's happening?"

"Vlad attacked them before."

"Do you think he's trying to prevent us from petitioning?" asked someone in the crowd.

"Most likely." answered someone else.

Dani walked over to the control panel and started pushing buttons. "You should change back," she said. So, we were both now in our human forms. It felt odd doing that in front of so many people.

The walls of the lab stated to glow. It was a ghost shield.

Dani opened the ghost portal. She pressed another button, and it turned blue. "Okay, guys, time to leave." she called to the massive crowd.

"But you said that we'd be here for two weeks!" someone shouted back.

"Yeah, well I told you that we'd be in Burbank for three, but that storm cut it short." she paused. "Vlad is obviously taking this very seriously as to come after Danny's supporters. If he thinks he needs to do that, who knows what else he will do? And I don't want any of you getting hurt."

I could see that she was shivering, like it was cold.

All the kids turned and looked at me before heading, one by one, back to their world.

When the last of them had left, I walked over to Dani and lightly touched her shoulder. She silently took a step forward and hugged me, her head slightly bowed.

"What's wrong?" I asked, unable to come up with a better question.

"Vlad wasn't after them. He was after you. He must've thought that you'd be here."

"Calm down. Nothing is going to happen." I said.

"Danny," she said quietly, "He tried to waste you before. Isn't that something? Doesn't that raise some kind of a red flag?"

There was a footstool in the corner of the room; I made her sit.

"Vlad tries to waste me on a daily basis." I said flatly. "I don't get why you seem so surprised."

"I just haven't seen him this upset before! Normally, if he threatens to tell about Phantom, it's because he's afraid someone's going to tell his secret. This was just out of nowhere. And in the last two days, Vlad has attacked you six times."

"Not all directly." I added.

"With me in the picture, there's a good chance you're gonna get hurt." she made an odd sniffling sound and forced a half-smile "And I don't want that to happen."

"I- I know. I know you don't." I stammered.

Suddenly, the room shook with a large explosion. Something nearby gave a high-pitched whine. Dani pushed me to the ground as the lab machinery exploded around us.

"See?" she asked weakly.

Through the clouds of smoke, I could see the green glow of the walls dim. I walked over to the wall and frowned. What was going on? The walls were alternating between shielded and unshielded.

I turned back towards Dani and saw a large metal overhang break, crashing down on top of her. She hadn't turned intangible. I went to help her up.

"He's here." she coughed, as she got up. "He knows where the shield generator is."

"Where is it?"

"Underground."

Again, the ground shook, and then Vlad floated up through the ground. He looked angry.

"Dani," I said. "Leave. Now, go."

"No." she said gingerly.

"Dani…"

"No!" she said, more firmly. "Danny, I told you, I won't let that happen."

"I'm not gonna let you fight Vlad. Not with the mood he's in." I said, transforming. Dani did the same.

She stepped in front of me and took a deep breath, screamed – very high-pitched. I was surprised that dos didn't show up at the front of the house – and let out her Ghostly Wail.

Vlad was knocked into the wall behind him. Dani stopped and started blasting him. The ectobeam started out pink, then turned to fuchsia, red, blue and white.

Finally, she stopped, fell to the ground and morphed.

I floated over to her and helped her up. "How…?"

"I've been practicing."

Vlad got up again, and so did she.

"Hey? Calm down." I said, taking hold of her arm and pulling her back down to the earth. "Dani? Listen to me. This isn't your fight. You don't need to risk getting hurt.

"Danny, I appreciate that you care, but-" she stopped as Vlad tried to blast her "-I can't just leave you here!" she said, creating an ecto shield.

"Dani I want you out!" I shouted.

Finally, something clicked. I could see tears spring into her eyes before she silently turned around and left the subterranean lab.

I turned back to Plasmius, but he blasted me into the wall behind me before I could so much. Retaliating, I flew up to him and kicked him in the side. He tried to blast me again, but I dodged it.

Then, I angled my next blast so that it would send him straight into the Ghostzone. As soon as he disappeared though the portal, I flew to the control panel and shut the portal.

So, floating back up into the house, I started looking for Dani. She wasn't in the house, so I flew around town looking for her. Eventually, the only place left was the park.

"Dani?" I called.

Almost instantly, she materialized in front of me. "Yeah?" she answered with a weak smile.

"Hey. You okay? You seemed really upset before. What happened?"

"Sorry. Guess I just kind… lost it, back there."

"It's fine," I said, "Happens to everyone."

She smiled gratefully.

"Hey, you wanna crash at my place tonight? Ya' know, seeing as how your parents are out of town for the month, and all."

"You sure?"

"Totally."

So, we flew back to my house. Downstairs, we watched a movie marathon. These were all new movies to her, by the way. All the Dead Teacher films, the three Cyber Zombie Commando movies, and Evil Gnome 1 and 2. For once in this hectic week, we actually enjoyed ourselves – Dani was laughing so hard, she almost wet herself. By the time the second Cyber Zombie Commando movie came on, it was already two in the morning.

Dani was lying on the other side of the sofa, her head on the armrest and feet tucked beneath her. Her white Haynes glowed almost painfully in the blue television light.

I sat on the other side of the sofa, my arm stretched across the top of the chair. I glanced over at her. Her eyes were closed, her chest slowly rising and falling. Obviously, she was asleep.

Unconscientiously, I leaned my head back on the couch, closed my eyes, and slowly fell asleep.

Several hours later, I vaguely heard the door open and close, and someone going into the lab before I fell back into a deep sleep again. I know what you're thinking, and, no, it wasn't Plasmius- it was my dad.

Jazz and my folks had just gotten back from some kind of interrogation held by the Guys in White.

Eventually, my dad came up from the lab. Dani and I were still asleep.

"It's done!" he announced, proudly.

Dani had started to wake up. "What's done?" she asked, sleepily.

I rubbed my eyes and stretched.

"The ecto- electrocuter! It'll electrocute and vaporize any ghost being within a range of two miles."

That woke her up, completely. "Come again?" she said, shakily.

"BONZI!!!!!!"

I felt a sudden surge of electricity run through me; I bolted up. You would, too, if you suddenly had ten thousand volts of electricity pumped through you. Undoubtedly, Dani felt it as well.

"Jack Fenton!" my mother screamed. "Give me that!" she snatched the device from him and turned it off.

Dani smiled at me. Her hair was standing on end. "Morning, sunshine!"

"Ignoring that. Besides, you're not exactly a light sleeper, yourself. You slept through the last Commando movie and the Evil Gnome movies, and to be perfectly honest, they're not exactly quiet." I said.

"So you two were here all night?"

"Yeah. When'd you get back?"

"About eight this morning."

"Eight? What time is it now?" I asked, trying to find the clock in the kitchen.

"Uhmm..." she glanced at the clock, "Twelve- forty two."

"Whoa," Dani said. "That's a lot more than what I would consider a nap."

"No kidding."

"Uhm… Danny, sweetie… The Guys in White asked us quite a few questions, and we couldn't answer most of them," my mom said, although the tone of voice she was using made me very uncomfortable. It sounded like she was actually scared of what my reaction would be. "So they asked us to ask you a few of the… most important ones."

"Sure." I said simply.

"And... you?"

"No problem" Dani answered, smiling.

I don't know what ideas the guys in white were put into my parents' heads, but it made me extremely uncomfortable to see them so jumpy around me.

"Jazz, dear, do you have the tape recorder?"

My sister reached into her purse and pulled out a little black voice recorder and set it on the table.

My mom hit the record button as Dani and I sat down.

"Okay. How long have you had your ghost powers?"

"Almost two years."

"And you, Danielle?"

"A little over two months."

"How did you get your powers?"

"I was looking inside the ghost portal – you know, before it was working? – and I turned it on from the inside, and when it broke open into the Ghostzone, it fused ghost energy into me."

"Danielle?"

"Well, mine was a bit more complicated: When we moved here, we came from another plane of existence. To get here, we had to go through the Ghostzone. When we got here, and were settled into my step mother's house, I realized that I had my powers."

"So Danny Fenton did not do anything to you to turn you part ghost?"

Dani frowned. "Is that to imply something?"

"The agents over at the center thought that Danny may have done something to give you your powers…"

"No," she said flatly, "he did not."

I laughed softly, followed by a rather awkward silence. My dad cleared his throat, "How long have you two know each other?"

"Uhmm…" I dropped my voice, leaning closer to Dani, "How long have we known each other?"

"I've known you for four and a half years." She whispered back.

"I've only known you for a month an a half. What should we say?"

"Month and a half?"

"Good for me." I addressed everyone in the room, including the tape recorder. "A month and a half. We've know each other for a month and a half."

"How do you know each other?" my mom asked. Apparently, Jazz was taking no part in this except for being present.

"Uh, school, ghost fighting – we're neighbors."


	10. Chapter 10

So, the next day, Dani and I decided to go to school, despite the anticipated pain from teachers and students. As we expected, people mostly skirted around us in the hallways, and there were usually a few empty desks surrounding us in the classroom.

Paulina was the only one – besides Dani, Sam, Tucker and Jazz, of course – who actually talked to me.

"Danny?"

I turned around to face her. She looked shy and timid, unlike her usual socially-statured self.

"Oh, hi, Paulina."

"Danny, I know that what the mayor said about you isn't true. And I'm sorry I couldn't have been there to support you. I really appreciate all you're doing for Amity Park."

I smiled. "Thanks. That really means a lot."

Paulina beamed and walked – or, skipped, rather – away. Halfway down the hall, she turned around and shouted, "You too, guys!" as sort of an afterthought. Dani laughed.

During Physical Education, we were exempt from playing. For forty five minutes, Dani and I sat on the sidelines. Apparently, it wasn't fair to the other team for their opponent to have a half ghost (and no one seemed to realize that there were TWO of us…). Despite the fact that we were ultimately ignored, Dani and I decided to run laps around the track. Eventually, after our fourth lap, we gave in to trying to outrun each other.

Originally, I was in lead. Then, Dani pulled out in front. Then for at least a minute and a half, we took turns pulling out in front of each other. Suddenly, Dani jumped forward. It took me a moment to realize that she had flown ahead. Trying hard not to laugh, I caught up with her. She did it again. Shaking my head and smiling, I started to full out fly. So did she. So, now, instead of running laps, we were flying laps. With Dani giving everything she had, we were going exactly the same speed.

I'm not sure how many laps we completed, but in the end, we found ourselves sprawled out on the grass in the middle of the track, laughing so hard, it hurt.

I realized that, by looking at this the right way, things really weren't bad at all. No one was trying to kill me at the moment, and everything else seemed to fall into place.

So, the next day, Dani, Sam, Tucker and I went to Floody Waters. It was actually the first time since Vlad told my secret that people ignored me in a good way. The park took our minds off of recent troubles.

We were – needless to say – soaking wet by the time that we left (four o' clock.)

While we were walking back, I heard someone call my name and turned around (Dani turned around, too, because, orally, it's her name, too.).

Right there, in Floody Waters, was Cody, Lindsey, and the rest of the group.

"Guys! What are you doing here?" Dani asked, surprised.

"Just thought we'd drop in and see how the whole Vlad thing was going."

Dani draped her towel around her shoulders and put her sunglasses on top of her head.

"How'd you get here?"

"We used the portal generator that you gave Cody! He told us all about it! It was his idea to come here in the first place!"

"Danny? We need to talk." Sam said, pulling me and tucker off to an employees only maintenance shed.

"Yeah?"

"Look, we know that Danielle has been helping. A lot. But do you really think that trusting them is a good idea?"

"Them?"

"Alien, or, whatever you said their name was."

"It's Ally. And to tell you the truth, I'm not too thrilled that they're here, either. I mean, I know that they're helping, but who knows what they're thinking? And Dani trusts them. That's the worst part."

Suddenly, from behind me, I heard, "But I trust you more, Danny." I spun around and saw Dani standing there. "If you want me to send them home, I will."

"I –I –I didn't mean it like that. All I'm saying is that they might not be themselves. It's not that I don't trust them or you, but-"

"Danny, stop. I understand. Obviously, things are just way too uncertain for them to be here right now. I'm sorry I brought them here. I should have known that they would have wanted to come back to help."

"No. I appreciate that you did, but-"

"It's just not the right time. I get it." She said, turning back to her friends. "Alright, guys, time to go."

Cody and Lindsey looked slightly confused.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"Just what I said. You're all leaving."

"You've got to be kidding. You call us in for two weeks and send us home in three days. Now, we're here to help, and you turn us away." Cody grabbed her arm, "I thought you wanted to help him."

Dani jerked her arm away. "Look, I know that what I'm doing seems odd, but I assure you that everything I'm doing is all for Danny's best interest."

"How can we be sure? How can we be sure that you're not working for Vlad? That you're not trying to hut Danny?"

A look of shock and anger came across her. Suddenly, she raised her arm and slapped him, hard, across the face. Turning on her heel, she took a running start and flew off.

I tried to go after her, but Cody grabbed my arm. "Dude, don't bother. She needs to cool. If you go after her, now, you'll just get burned."

I shook him off. "Look, you had no right to say that to her. You know that she has done more for me than any of you could have."

"That still doesn't mean-"

"I'm the one who asked her to send you back." Then, I turned around and flew off in Dani's direction.

After looking around half of Amity park, I headed into the Ghostzone. Not even ten seconds after I entered the separate dimension, a streak of pink light flew past me, coming to a short stop about five yards away. The light died down and I saw her. Her face was beet red, and she stood as rigid as a stone statue.

"Dani…"

"I almost blasted him. Right then and there."

"Maybe you should have. There's something I need to tell you." I took her arm and led her back into her stepmother's ghost lab. "When I fought Vlad, last, there was something I didn't tell you about. I knocked him into the portal. While it was blue."

"But…"

"Dani? You okay?"

"Vlad got into my world?" she practically screamed.

Guess not, I thought.

Dani started up the inter-dimensional portal and I followed her through it.

"c'mon! This Alleyway should take us practically straight to Cody's apartment."

We ran down the dark strip of street and came out near a Cay-mart. It was very packed.

"Crud! I forgot."

"Dani." I floated slightly off the ground and turned invisible.

"Duh."

So, she turned invisible and flew to Cody's apartment.

Phasing into his room, we started searching immediately. After a while, Dani held up a small glowing pendant. "That's it?" I remember asking.

Dani created a portal back to the Ghostzone. I thought it would come out somewhere near Clockwork's towers, but it brought us right back to Dani's lab.

She stood there, looking at the pendant, then handed it to me. "You need to destroy it."

"What?" I asked, pocketing it.

"That's the only way Vlad will let off it."

Click.

Dani tensed.

"What?" I asked

"Danny. Gun. He's got a loaded gun."


	11. Chapter 11

"Give me the pendant." said someone from behind us.

"Over my dead body."

"I could arrange that." said the person.

"You're not getting this pendant."

Click.

"Give it to me, or I swear, I'll shoot."

"No."

The man walked up to her.

"Danny?"

"Yeah?" My hand slipped precariously to my pocket, knowing what she was going to ask for.

"Leave."

Immediately, my hand shot away from the pendant.

"When I give him the pendant, he's going to shoot me, then come after you."

"No."

"Go. Now. I don't want you-"

More clicks were heard, each followed by a thunderous clap of gunfire.

My stomach lurched as I saw Dani topple forward. I shook as I looked down. She had been shot three times, all in her back.

The man clicked the gun again. "Give it to me."

I turned around to see who it was. I stared at him, and Cody stared right back at me.

I took the pendant out of my pocket, loading it with a seventeen second ecto-bomb.

"Here." I tossed it to him.

Cody smiled evilly.

"Finally, I, Vlad Plasmius, have access to and power over all worlds." He raised his gun towards me. "And now that I have the power, there is no further use for Danny Phantom." He sneered.

The gun clicked again.

Then, finally, the pendant exploded, knocking Vlad from Cody's body.

I sucked the near-unconscious Vlad into a thermos; Cody collapsed, the gun falling from his hand.

I called 911.

It was seven thirty when I called for the ambulance, and only at somewhere around eight fifteen was Dani officially checked into the hospital.

It wasn't what you would think it would be. It wasn't like when a human – full human – was shot. She stared to self-heal immeasurably quickly, but it still was horrible to think about.

When Dani got to the hospital, they immediately transferred her to the ICU. Eight hours later, a surgeon told me that Dani had woken up, but that it was only going to be for a short period of time, and that she wanted to see me.

Semi-cautiously, I entered the small hospital room. She was lying there, hooked up to at least twelve different machine, none of which I could – or cared to – identify. "Dani? Oh, man. I… I…" I stopped. She was smiling.

"Danny. You did it. The pendant. It's gone." She said, weakly, still smiling.

I forced a smile right back.

Turning to the nurse, I asked, "So, how long till she gets out?"

An unpleasant look came across her face.

"What?" I asked, hoping she had just heard me wrong, and thought I said something else.

"It's just not possible… I'm sorry." She whispered.

I spun back around to face Dani. I didn't know if someone had already told her that or not, but by looking at her expression, Dani knew her condition was bad.

I gave the nurse my cell number, telling her to have the hospital call me if anything happened.

The next morning, at three o' clock, my cell phone rang.

Reluctantly, I flew to California to tell her parents. They were staying at a Harriet Courtyard Inn and Suites. I flew there, so I was kind of exhausted between the long flight and the recent events.

As I knocked on their hotel room door, I contemplated on what I was going to say. What would they say? Abigail opened the door, clad in a black business suit.

"Danny? What are you doing here?" she asked.

"I… I have some… bad news, Mrs. Platto."

"What is it?" she asked as she led me into the room, beckoning for her husband to put aside the laptop and listen.

"There was an accident – and… Dani… she-"

"Danny? What's wrong?"

"She died in the hospital this morning. She had been shot."

At that point, I had figured that they were either going to throw me out (which at that point, I would have been grateful of), or throw something at me.

Jake took a deep breath, "Thank you Danny."

The next day, we flew back to Amity Park, via plane. Not so much to my surprise, Vlad was waiting at the airport with my parents.

Vlad insisted that I ride back with him. Obviously, I declined, but my dad spoke for me.

So, I ended up riding with him.

Vlad glared at me through the rear view mirror of his Foyota Echo.

"I keep hoping that you will learn your lesson, Daniel, and yet, I keep having to go a step further to teach you." It was hot in the car. I was furious. "I don't know when you will learn. You cannot win."

"Win? Win what? My mom? The respect of the people of Amity Park? I don't know if you've noticed, but you just murdered a fifteen-year-old girl, Vlad." I forced my voice back to a somewhat normal level, "I could tell them who you are- make you pay for what you did. But I'm not going to. I know Dani wouldn't have wanted that, so I'm going to keep your secret. If you want to tell it, and ruin your life, fine. But I'm not going to let you ruin mine." I hissed.

Vlad smirked. "So much rebellion in one so young."

We sat in silence for a few moments. Then, very casually, Vlad said, "So – When's the service?"

I swear, if we hadn't been in a confined area, I would have blasted him.

As it turned out, the funeral service would be a few weeks from then.

I knew what it was like for someone you knew to die, but someone you saw every day? At first, it was just a shock. Pausing at her house every day and then realizing that she wasn't coming out…

On the day of the service, I noticed that not many people knew Mr. Platto. There were a few guys from the port, but he didn't have any family in this world. A few people from Abigail's family had turned out, but all in all, there weren't that many people there. Although I did recognize some teachers that were there. Honestly, Sam, Tucker, and I were the only kids there. And Jazz, who thinks she's an adult.

Then, in the middle of the viewing, Mrs. Platto asked me to speak at the service. At first, I hesitated, but eventually found my way up to the large preaching podium.

I didn't think in a million years that I'd be talking at her funeral, but there I was.

"Dani never judged anyone for more or less than what they were. She always saw people for who they were, good or bad. She never turned her back on me, or anyone else. And when both our lives were at risk, she held out." I paused, looking at the dozens of people staring solemnly back at me. "Dani was undoubtedly more unique than most of the people here. She, like myself, was half ghost. But she also had a very uncommon view of the world. She wasn't afraid of what the people of this town would think or say about her if they ever found out about her powers. And, eventually, she forced the same view on me. As of now, we don't know who killed Dani…" I choked on the words. They felt unnatural, "But I do know, that, as far as she told me, she accomplished what she wanted to do here: Open the eyes of Amity Park, and the world, and show me that just because I'm a bit different doesn't mean the world is out to get me." I heard an odd sound between phrases, like someone gasping.

With sort of a shock, I realized it was me.

At that moment, in the back of the room, I saw Vlad walk in. He walked up to the front row of pews, nodding casually to the people he knew. After a moment he said, "Oh, please, continue. Don't stop because of me."

"No," I said, "We will stop because of you." I said, getting down from the podium. I must have been visibly angry.

"Danny. Come. Come sit. That was lovely." Said Mrs. Platto, edging me away from Vlad, back to the pew where I had been sitting before.

Instead, Vlad stepped up to the podium, looked out at the general crowd, and started to speak. "Danielle had her purpose. We all have one. But, unfortunately, she misunderstood hers. She tampered with the order of things here, and forced a new view on the world. And because she caused such a paradigm shift, someone felt it was their responsibility to restore things. As mayor of this town, I will personally make sure that the murderer is caught and persecuted." Vlad shifted his gaze, staring cold and hard, right down at me. "Isn't that right? Isn't that what you want, Daniel?"

I stared back up at him. I wanted to blast him. Show him what it felt like to have life blasted out of him for no reason. Unfortunately, Danny Phantom attacking the oh-so-very-human mayor would have ended very badly. So, instead, I got up, and walked towards the door.

"Danny? Where are you going?" I'm not sure who asked it.

"As far away from him as possible." I said, the doors slamming behind me.

I felt bad that I had left, but I was dangerously angry. Like he would actually try to 'find the murderer'. Right.

Dressed fully formal, I must have looked pretty odd walking down the streets. I don't exactly remember where I went, or how I got there, but I know I felt horrible.

Eventually, I found myself shut away in my room at about a quarter to one.

Someone knocked on my door. "Danny?" it was Sam.

"Yeah?" I was lying on my bed, staring up at the ceiling. She came in.

"Danny, you okay? You looked like you were about to kill him back there."

"I was." I half-whispered.

"C'mon. We both know he had absolutely no right saying that."

"I know."

"You can't blame yourself for what happened to her."

"I know." I repeated.

"Then come back to the church with me. Please?"

"No. I can't. Not now. If I go back there now, someone's going to end up hurt."

"Vlad left. Your parents are worried about you, and Mrs. Platto says she has something she wants to tell you." She pulled me up off the bed.

So, we went together.

When we got there, Dani's parents, my parents, Sam's parents, and Tucker were the only people there.

"What happened?" My mom asked.

"I guess I just got a little too upset." I answered, truthfully.

Mrs. Platto called me over to the far end of the room and handed me a small zebra-print diary.

"What's this?"

"Her journal."

"Why-"

"She would have wanted you to have it. Everything it says about you, she would have wanted you to know." Pause. "Danny, I – we – We wanted you to know that Dani told us that knowing you was the most wonderful thing in the world."

I looked up at her. She seemed dazed.

Quietly, I stammered, looking for the right words. "Did… Did I … Did I do the right thing, you think?" It felt very odd to be asking that question – especially to her – but she answered.

"Danny, we, as humans, have virtually no right to say if another person's actions were right or wrong," pause. "But in my opinion: Yes. Yes, you did." She smiled at me and walked away, her heels clacking on the hardwood floors. I turned around and saw her husband standing there.

"Danny," he nodded in a sot of a 'hello.'

"Mr. Platto." I mimicked his gesture.

"Were you not with my daughter when she was shot?" he asked. I could hear the slightest tone of anger in his voice.

I hesitated on answering. "Yes, sir."

Suddenly, he grabbed my arm a bit roughly. "Who shot her?" anger clearly audible in his voice, along with grief.

I didn't answer for a moment. I didn't know what to tell him I would have told him the truth, had Dani not wanted me to keep Vlad's secret. "I – don't know." I lied. It must have been obvious that I did, because his grip tightened on my arm.

"Danny," his voice became very flat, unemotional, "I need to know who killed my daughter. Are you going to tell me or not?"

I broke away. "I'm sorry, Mr. Platto. I can't. I won't."

And with that, I left. As I walked out of the Church, Sam and Tucker hurriedly running after me, I heard Mr. Platto start to cuss me out.

I was incredibly annoyed. Why couldn't he just understand? I couldn't tell anyone. On orders of his own daughter, too. Even so, I felt horrible for not being able to tell him.

After a while, he seemed to calm down. When he came home from work, I couldn't hear the door slam shut next door, anymore.

Abigail and I talked more and more as she left her husband alone in his mood. She said that the reason that Jake was so moody was because he and Katelyn went through four miscarriages and an infant death to have a child. And to lose both of them in such succession like that was overwhelming for him.

"I'm so sorry. I wish I could do something. I really do."

"Don't be. Danny, There's nothing any of us could do about what happened."

I sighed and told her about Cody, and the 'ghost' and how I had had the pendent.

For a moment, she just sat there, staring at me. I could see tears welling up in her eyes. She started to say something, but decided against it. Then, after a few seconds, she said, quietly, "When that happened, What did you do?"

"Nothing," I whispered.

"What did she do?" she asked

I looked up. It was odd. I hadn't thought about that. "N-Nothing She didn't do anything. In fact, she… She made it seem like she had the pendent. She refused to give it to him."

Abigail said, "Danny, I know that Danielle respected you. Greatly. Now, I know that I've only known her for a little while, but I know this: Dani thought that you were the most wonderful person to have come into her life. She told me that she knew that you were an amazing person, even though she had never met you. And when she got her powers, she knew that no matter what happened, it was more important that you be here than she. That's why she did what she did. She told me that heaven forbids something would have happened, you would be the first person she entrusted her life to."

"She already did." I said. "She put her life in my hands… and look what happened. I let her down."

"No, Danny. You didn't."

"Mrs. Platto," I started, "she trusted me! She wanted – She wanted – " I stopped. If I said any more, I would regret it later.

"You know what she wanted. And you shouldn't beat yourself up over this – It wasn't your fault."

"But she – she's dead – just because I d- didn't d- o any-thing." I stammered.

"Danny," she said, softly, "she did what she did on purpose, and you know it."

"No. You're wrong!" I could hear my voice slowly start to rise. "She had nothing to do with what-"

"Danny!" Abigail shouted over me. "If she had said that you had it, What do you think would have happened? It wouldn't have been her. Plasmius would have shot you."

I stared at her. "How did you know?"

She smiled softly. "It wasn't that hard to figure out. You didn't seem too happy about him being there, and I know that he's a ghost, so you put two and two together…"

"You can't tell anyone, ma'am."

"Of course not, Danny…"

Behind her, I heard the door burst open. Jake quietly swore, stormed over to the window, pushing his wife out of the way. He slammed the window closed, stared at me, and then closed the blinds.

I backed away from the window and lay down on my bed, sighing. She was right. I couldn't beat myself up over Dani's decision. Okay, Mr. Platto practically hated me for not being able to tell him who killed his daughter. Sure, Vlad taunted me with that. But I was still Danny Phantom. And Amity Park still needed me.

I picked up the little diary that Mrs. Platto had given me and started reading it. I could see Dani's bad days. On the bad days, there were no doodles. She really loved to doodle. On any given school day, I would be able to look over her shoulder into her note book and see all the doodles and story ideas in the margins, if there were any notes, at all…

By the time that I had finished reading it, my stomach was in knots. I headed down to the kitchen, just to get away from the book.

Jazz was sitting at the table. "Hey, lil' bother. You feeling okay?" she asked.

I half-smiled "Fine."

"You're not too upset about… you know…"

"I don't understand why everyone thinks that I'm so depressed about what happened. I'm not."

Jazz came around the table and put her arm around me. "I know it's hard, but it gets easier. I promise. Remember when the Glenns lost their daughter in the skiing accident? I still miss Kyra, but it doesn't hurt as much."

"Making it easier isn't going to change anything, Jazz." I sighed and with that, I walked out of the kitchen.

She was sort of right. The initial feeling left after a while, But Vlad still taunted me when ever we were in a fight.

All in all, Mr. and Mrs. Platto have – miraculously- decided to stay in Amity Park. I don't think that Jake ever forgave me for not telling him who killed his daughter. I still wish I had been able to offer them some sort of closure. But if I had told him, he would have known that it was Vlad. Then, undoubtedly, he would have told anyone and everyone that Vlad Masters is half ghost. And that would have defeated everything Dani was trying to prevent. I know she wouldn't have wanted that to happen.


	12. Chapter 12

The End.

Whoohoo! FINALLY!!!!! It's OVER!!!!

Actually, it really ISN'T, but OH WELL!!!

I DID have two OTHER stories to follow this one, but I'm too gosh darn layze because they're each some hundred written pages each (I have a bad habit of not putting anything on the computer.) Plus, they were crap, so I'll spare you.

Were you guyz expecting that, huh? HUH???

This was one of my first EVER fanfiction, and even with a whole load of revision, it was still horrible. My FIST fanfiction was something that I did similar to this, only with Deltora Quest, in the fifth and sixth grade. Yep. I was writing even as a nerdy little emelntary skooler! Anywho, I REALLLY want to thank everyone who actually READ that darn thing, and a big, huge spectacular shout out to 'Eclipse LOVES Number 4' – the only reason I actually kept the dumb thing up! Here we go:

THANK YOU SO MUCH BRIONY!!!!! YOU'RE ROCKINEST EVA!!!!!! GEEEEEYAAAAARRRRRRGGGHHH!!!!!!!!!! WHOOHOO FOR YOOO!!!

WITHOUT YOU, THAT STORY WOULD HAVE SAT ON MY DESKTOP FOR EVER!!!!

Give thine self a hand, Miss Briony!

Okeedokee, that's pretty much all I have to say, except I MAY be posting a nother part to this – much shorter than the actuall STORY part – call Sports Failures. Pretty Self explanatory name, havin to do with Danny and yours truly!

SEEE JOOOO!!!!

~Tib Dunncan


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